When I went to report on the Players Championship at Sawgrass, I stayed on quiet Oak Street in Jacksonville, near the St. Johns River and about a half-hour drive to Ponte Vedra Beach, where the tournament was being held.
On a few nights, having worked late in the media centre and having not eaten yet, I’d drive down the 95, across the Fuller Warren bridge, back to my lodge. I’d venture down Barrs, across Herschel, and on to Park Street – home to several fast food establishments.
One night, it was Wendys, and another night, it was Biggies for a pizza slice. On my first solo work trip to the States, strolling around in the evening with no companionship probably wasn’t the done thing. But I was hungry.
I still had golf-ish clothes on. I hadn’t been playing in the Players, obviously, but you do wear similar attire to those inside the ropes – shorts and some form of collared shirt.
I was reminded of these random memories when I saw that the PGA Tour had shared a video feature of Dan Brown near Dallas, which hosted the recent CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
In 2025, Brown narrowly missed out on earning playing rights in America via the DP World Tour’s 10-card pathway, but he was bumped up a spot when Laurie Canter moved to LIV Golf.
The man from Romanby in North Yorkshire first revealed himself to the public at the 2024 Open at Troon, smoking darts and throwing them at pins on the way to contending for the Claret Jug, and playing with Scottie Scheffler in the final round.
Since then, fans have tracked him, kept in touch, so to speak. His rise in the game, culminating in becoming a solid PGA Tour player, has also coincided with the success of his social media platform – Beers Fore Bogeys, on which his pals track his progress, and somewhat laid-back approach to life on tour, while completing fun challenges too, such as when he shot 17-under off the front tees at Romanby.
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We’ve seen all sides to Brown, though. In July 2025, after winning the BMW International Open in Germany, he became emotional, revealing a friend of his from home had passed away the weekend before.
It is all of this that took him to the streets of McKinney last week, in the golf attire mirroring the get-up I mentioned previously, when the PGA Tour media team ushered him into McKinney Hat Co. to get fit for his own stetson, then Hutchins Barbeque restaurant to plunge into a plate full of wings.
‘We sent a British rookie to TEXAS for the first time (Hilarious!)’ is the name of the video if you’d like to find it. Watching Brown in alien surroundings took me back to March two years ago, when I was a British Rookie in Florida – just not as hilarious.
Also, at the end of April, Brown and his close friend and fellow PGA Tour rookie John Parry starred as a duo in tour content in Louisiana, where they went on a ghost tour during the week of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
It is unbelievably refreshing and satisfying to see that, evidently, in the PGA Tour’s content meetings, they decided to turn to one of Yorkshire’s finest, now blazoned with long, golden hair and a contrasting brown beard, in pursuit of engagement and showing off the personality of the membership roster.
To the tour’s credit, the new Chasing Sunday series on YouTube is also great, where players and their caddies are mic’ed up during the competition. The parts with multi-tour winner Akshay Bhatia and his looper Joe Greiner are particularly brilliant.
In a game crying out for characters, and a tour looking to change the way it interacts with fans under new management, what a moment this is for the Englishman Brown who, around this time two years ago, was preparing to play in Final Open Qualifying at West Lancs on Merseyside to earn the right to play at Troon two weeks later.
The dry sense of humour and the willingness to look silly are traits often displayed by players who take part in content creation for the DP World Tour, too. Perhaps its American older brother has taken note, and nabbed some homegrown talent while they’re at it.
The more Dan Brown the PGA Tour can show us, the better, so keep up the good work, everyone.
Brown has been a breath of fresh air and a welcome sight to numb the monotony of the evening doom scroll.
NOW READ: Exclusive with Dan Brown: What I remember (and don’t remember) about stunning Open debut
NOW READ: Which DP World Tour players earned a PGA Tour card?
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