Cape Town – Steven Brown won his maiden professional title by one stroke at the Portugal Masters on Sunday.
The Englishman carded a final round five under 66 around a sunbaked Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, enough to take him to 17 under for the tournament, one ahead of South Africans Brandon Stone and Justin Walters.
It was a slow and steady day for Brown, who made just two gains on the front nine to stay in touch with Stone, who was two strokes ahead with nine to play.
After a birdie on the 11th, Brown hit the shot of the day on the par five 12th. From no less than 262 yards out, he crunched a 3wood to within four feet of the pin and holed the putt for an eagle.
Brown held his nerve to ride out a string of pars while Stone began to falter. The South African dropped out of the race after poor reads and a cold putter let him down. Stone struck a superb iron into the par three 16th, but he three putted from 12 feet for a bogey.
Minutes later, it was Walters who slipped up, not getting enough distance on his greenside chip and leaving him too much to do to save par on the 18th, moving him down to 16 under.
Playing in the final group, Stone had a chance to force a playoff after two brilliant shots on the 18th, but his birdie attempt from 14 feet didn’t drop.
Every victory is a welcome one for golfers, but this was especially important for Brown, who started the week needing a top two finish just to keep in Tour card.
“You just never know with this game,” the 32-year-old told europeantour.com.
“It’s crazy to think how well I’ve played the last month to how bad it was the first two thirds of the year. I never thought this was going to happen. I was just counting down ready for Tour School to get my game ready for that.
“The last few weeks I’ve had a calmness in my head. Even today, I liked the fact that I had to go for it and I wasn’t just trying to have a good result. That’s probably the difference.”
Oliver Fischer, who became the first man to shoot 59 on the European Tour, closed with a 35 foot par putt to finish in T8, five shots behind.
Leading final round scores in the Portugal Masters at the Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, Portugal on Sunday (GBR/IRL unless stated, par 71 ):
267 – Steven Brown 69 67 65 66
268 – Brandon Stone (RSA) 66 66 66 70, Justin Walters (RSA) 65 66 71 66
269 – Adrien Saddier (FRA) 67 68 68 66
270 – Chris Paisley 69 69 68 64
271 – Jeunghun Wang (KOR) 66 65 71 69, Eddie Pepperell 67 66 70 68
272 – Matt Wallace 67 70 66 69, Andy Sullivan 68 72 66 66, Jake McLeod (AUS) 65 72 72 63, Jack Singh Brar 67 68 71 66, Tom Lewis 69 66 68 69, Oliver Fisher 65 65 70 72
273 – Dean Burmester (RSA) 70 65 65 73, Joakim Lagergren (SWE) 69 71 66 67, Guido Migliozzi (ESP) 71 68 69 65, George Coetzee (RSA) 69 65 68 71, Louis De Jager (RSA) 63 72 70 68, Pablo Larrazabal (ESP) 70 66 68 69, Bradley Dredge 71 68 67 67
274 – Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 67 71 68 68, Hugo Leon (CHI) 69 69 68 68, Kalle Samooja (FIN) 68 70 68 68, Kristoffer Reitan (NOR) 73 67 67 67, Martin Kaymer (GER) 67 70 72 65, Renato Paratore (ITA) 66 70 67 71
– TEAMtalk
