‘You almost don’t believe it’ – Steven Brown’s ace at the Finnish Challenge
Hit the middle of the green, let the slope take it down, easy hole-in-one! That’s how it worked for one man in Finland…
Steven Brown aced the par-3 7th at the Finnish Challenge on Friday afternoon thanks to a perfect 7-iron.
It comes just a day after Lauri Ruuska carded a 59, only the fourth ever sub-60 round in European Challenge Tour history.
It is the first televised hole-in-one for the Englishman, and he couldn’t quite believe it.
“First hole-in-one in a tournament. It is an amazing feeling really. It’s weird actually when it disappears, you almost don’t believe it,” Brown said.
“Basically it was a 7-iron, about 185, 188 yards, something like that,” Brown explained after the round.
“I was aiming a couple of yards left and at first, I wasn’t sure if it was going to get there. I was wanting it to go.
“It landed and the slope of the green goes towards the hole. It went towards it, and it disappeared.
“I knew it was a good line and I knew it was an area of the green where it feeds in, so if you get it right, just like all of us did really. It was just mine that hit the right bit of the slope and it went in.
“I can’t wait to see it actually!”
Brown carded a second round of 65 thanks to three birdies and an eagle to go along with the hole-in-one on the 7th hole.
The Englishman won the Portugal Masters on the DP World Tour back in 2019, and he is in a good position to grab another win this week.
What did you think to Steven Brown’s ace at the Finnish Challenge? How many holes-in-one have you had in your life? Let us know with a Tweet!
Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
