Steven

Brown

That first European Tour win, with his card on the line, lifted the Englishman from 150th to 69th on the Race to Dubai and secured his playing privileges for the next two seasons. He said: “It’s been great. I had a week off after the win, so it’s nice. Didn’t do much golf. Just trying to take it all in. Had a few days in the sun and get ready for this week. I want to push on for the rest of the season,” said Brown, who was T15 on his last start in this event in 2017. This is his debut at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal and he said after playing nine holes: “You have to be good off the tee and quite tree-lined. So you can’t get away with too many bad tee shots. Just keep it in play and try to hole some putts.” Brown ranked 1st for Putting Average when winning in Portugal.

What a week for the Englishman in Vilamoura. Ahead of it he had not broken 68 all season and yet managed to do so three times after an opening lap of 69. Moreover, after a R2 67, he added a bogey-free 65-66 at the weekend. On Sunday he ticked the second, ninth and 11th, but at the par-5 12th he found something special. “Probably the best shot I’ve ever hit,” he said afterward of a 269-yard fairway wood to six feet which he drained for an eagle-3. “I saw the leaderboard on 13 so I was saying to myself keep going.” In truth he needed only to par those final six holes and he did it, with a startling level of composure for a man who started the week 150th in the Race to Dubai and ended it 69th. “It’s hard to get into words,” he stumbled. “It’s not sunk in, it was weird, you just never know with this game. I’ve played so well the last month, but I was counting down for Q School really.” No more, after, incredibly his first pro win.

The Englishman entered the week ranked 150th in the Race to Dubai and with something special needed to avoid a return to Qualifying School. Indeed, even given this special Moving Day lap, he still ranks only 125th in the projections so he must not relent and continue to improve on Sunday at the Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course in Vilamoura. His bogey-free Saturday lap witnessed a pair of front nine birdies at the second and fourth before he accelerated through the back nine, ticking the tenth, 14th, 15th and 17th. He’s finished only T44 and MC on this course in the past, and lacks a top ten this season, although he was T11 last time out in the Open de France. Can this last ditch stand complete the rescue mission?

Right now, with the afternoon wave heading out, he’s T1 in the hutch alongsie Adrian Otaegui and Nino Bertasio but T2 overall with two-shot leader Kristian Krogh Johannessen just heading out. Brown didn’t drop a shot in his opening round but, by contrast, he swallowed three bogeys today. However, he compensated by doubling his birdie count to six to ensure a second straight 68. Going out, he bogeyed at 3 and 6 but, each time, responded with birdie-4 at the following hole. On the second nine, he made a move with three red circles (10, 11 and 13) against another square at 12 and added a final par breaker of the day at 16. The Englishman is down at 160th on the Race to Dubai so needs a move soon to secure playing privileges for next season. Earlier this season he was T15 at Valderrama so his performance so far on this tree-lined Spanish track has some logic.

That’s just one swing behind clubhouse leader Scott Jamieson and T5 on the live board with the morning session still in play. Brown slumped to a first-round 80 on his Wentworth debut last year and followed it with a 77 to miss the cut by a distance. It was a different story today as he dropped just a single shot. That came at the 7th hole to return him back to even par after a birdie at 4 but he responded with a bounceback birdie at 8. Brown, who was playing in the first group of the day, then pieced together nine straight pars before walk-off circles at 17 and 18. The 32-year-old snapped a run of five straight missed cuts with T15 in last week’s KLM Open so he had some renewed confidence heading into his home event.

The Englishman’s ranking of 160th in the Race to Dubai does not lie because he also ranks 164th for Stroke Average. His only Strokes Gained category ranking better than 97th is Putting (41st) so he needs to get a hot putter soon. He’ll have hopes of that happening this week because back in 2016 he finished T11 on the track (he was T3 at halfway), although he also missed the cut last year. He sealed his card with one good week last season (T2 at the Made in Denmark where he lost a play-off) and he’s going to need something similar soon. The omens are not good because he has just one top 30 all season, when T15 in the Andalucia Masters.

It’s a trek northward for the Wentworth-based player and back in 2011 he qualified for the match play rounds of the Amateur Championship in third after laps of 72-69, but he lasted just one match play tie, going down 3-and-2. However he has form issues since his play-off defeat in the Made in Denmark tournament last summer. He did manage T16 in this tournament at Walton Heath, but that is his only top 30 in 19 starts since the Danish near-miss. Moreover 13 of those weeks were truncated ones. If he wants a tiny grain of hope it comes in his T38 at the Trophee Hassan II – it was his best finish of the season.

Four top 20s in his first full season on the European Tour saw the Englishman retain his card in 2018, although it needed one of them to be a very fine T2 (play-off defeat) in the Made in Denmark. He opened this season with a missed cut in the Hong Kong Open and T54 last week in the South African Open, when opening rounds of 71-68-68 were marred by a final lap 76. The Wentworth based player is making his Leopard Creek debut, but has started four times in South Africa. He was T19 in the 2017 Joburg Open (T7 after 54 holes) and then last week was his only other made cut.

The Englishman played on the successful 2011 GB&I Walker Cup team, but has achieved little of note since turning pro and plies his trade on the Challenge Tour. This is only his 8th European Tour start since turning pro five years ago and he is 2-for-7 with a best of only T44 in last year’s Portugal Masters. The world No. 1085 opened his account on the back nine with birdies at 10 and 12, but gave the shots back at 16 and 17. On his second nine he was flawless whilst adding birdies at 1, 4 and 5. He had six top tens on the 2014 Challenge Tour but has managed just one this term, when T9 in the Challenge de Espana.