Shane Lowry probably wasn’t paying attention. But a couple of hours after he shot a five-under 66 and finished his first round of the Open Championship with the early lead, it was taken from him.
Daniel Brown, in the second-to-last group on the course, capped his round with birdies on two of his last three holes — including one in fading light on the 18th — to get to six under and take the round-one lead of the final major of the year.
So who is this guy leading a Royal Troon Open, and in his major debut to boot? You aren’t the only one asking.
Brown, a 29-year-old Englishman who plays on the DP World Tour, is the 272nd-ranked golfer in the world, but on Thursday, he never made a bogey and led the field in Strokes Gained: Total, picking up 9.46 shots on the field. He was particularly good off the tee (he also ranked first in SG there) and led the field in driving accuracy.
Playing in the more weather-friendly afternoon wave (with his brother, Ben, on the bag), Brown stuck it inside 3 feet on both 3 and 5 to make birdies and turn in two under. He made back-to-back birdies on 10 and 11 — he made a 35-footer on 10 — before he tied Lowry’s lead on 16 and took it outright on 18.
“I saw Shane obviously go to five-[under], and I was still stuck at four. I was kind of like, oh, I want to push on a bit. Yeah, that was the only thought I really had,” said Brown, who earned his Open spot via Final Qualifying at West Lancashire. “I was looking at leaderboards, but I wasn’t really thinking too much about where I was. I just kind of wanted to try and catch Shane if I could.”
All this from a guy who finished 61st at the Genesis Scottish Open on Sunday. Before that? He had missed six cuts and withdrew from another tournament in a seven-event span.
But it’s not like Brown hasn’t had success before. Last August, he picked up his first DP World Tour victory (in his 20th career start) at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational, finishing 15 under and beating Alex Fitzpatrick by five and third-place Eddie Pepperell by eight.
His first DP World Tour start actually came in 2015, but he had to wait over seven years for his second one. He spent the time in-between playing on the EuroPro and Challenge tours. Last year, he earned DP World Tour membership via qualifying school and played well. Besides his win, he made 24 of 28 cuts and finished the season ranked 50th on tour.
This year had been more of a struggle, but he found something at the Scottish Open last week. He was 61st out of 156, but he was also sunk by a final-round 74, which was five strokes higher than his previous high score from the week.
“I was playing well leading up to the tournament, so scores haven’t really reflected it recently,” Brown said. “But, yeah, I felt comfortable and probably a bit more calm than you normally would be with it being your first major.”
