Exclusive with Dan Brown: What I remember (and don’t remember) about stunning Open debut

What is the first target of someone making their debut at The Open? Making the cut, I would guess.

Reach the weekend and see what happens. This would be the topic of conversation for most Open debutants when re-living their first go at golf’s oldest major, but not Dan Brown.

Only 10 golfers have won The Open with their first attempt since 1860 and although it proved a step too far for the Yorkshireman, he gave it everything having earned a spot a matter of weeks before at Final Qualifying at West Lancs on Merseyside.

Only one golfer has won The Open via that route as well, so the odds were stacked against Brown in more ways than one, ranked 272nd in the world at the time. This is why I wasn’t surprised when he told me he had no regrets about an incredible week at Royal Troon, where he finished in a tie for 10th after being tied for second at the halfway and 54-hole stages.

“No regrets. There are things I could have done better, I didn’t play the front nine great in comparison to most other guys at the top, that was where the scores were getting made,” he told NCG while sitting in the 18th grandstand at Wentworth.

“I naturally hit a fade and the wind was strong off the right so I would hit that fade, so I was getting caught between slicing into it or just using it, and I just got stuck in between at times. If I could go back, I would’ve just chopped slices into the wind.

“But that’s one of the things I did last week because I learnt from The Open from those right to left winds on the front nine, that was how I managed to have a good week last week (Irish Open) as well, I learned from where I went wrong. At The Open, there were a couple of incidents with the bunkers on Saturday, but you can’t have any regrets about that because I hit good enough golf shots, and you just get a bit unfortunate.”

“I wish I could go back – I can’t remember anything from the Friday, I can only remember little snippets from the Sunday,” he added.

“I’m not too sure. Just Friday and Sunday, they just seem to get a bit lost, I just can’t really remember much of what I did on Friday and Sunday, but on Thursday and Saturday, I can remember the vast majority. I don’t know if it was nerves or pressure that made it just all a bit of a blur.”

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Dan Brown: The Open is a grind – give yourself credit for making par

Although Brown won on the DP World Tour just under a year before the 152nd Open, the surprise of his rise to the top of the big yellow leaderboard couldn’t be overstated. He’d missed six of his last eight cuts which is why he headed to Liverpool’s golf coast for the 36-hole qualifier, the last chance at redemption which he took.

After shooting six-under in round one, he became the first men’s player to shoot 65 or better in the first round of their major debut. Only Francis Ouimet, Ben Curtis and Keegan Bradley have won a major while playing in their first. Brown was looking to etch his name in history, and it just didn’t seem to phase him.

There were brutal days at Troon, conditions that two-time major winner and previous Open runner-up Dustin Johnson admitted he’d never seen so difficult. I remember listening to Brown speak in the media mix zone after the third round and you wouldn’t have thought he had just double-bogeyed the 18th hole and surrendered the 54-hole lead at The Open to Billy Horschel.

Before that, he hit a driver to the par-3 17th green, a thing every golfer wants to avoid. But this was the most stark indicator of the test South Ayrshire lumped on the field. A tricky day for Brown still yielded five birdies which kept him in the hunt, one shot behind Horschel alongside five other players including fan favourite Justin Rose and the eventual winner Xander Schauffele.

He said he woke up feeling fine on Saturday and he wouldn’t feel nervous on Sunday morning either (I’m usually nervous on Sunday of The Open and I’m not playing). It wasn’t to be for the 29-year-old, shooting 74 to fall out of contention. But Brown spoke to his approach to links golf, similar to how he conjured a fourth-place finish at the recent Irish Open, and how you must cut yourself some slack to thrive when the elements are throwing the kitchen sink at you.

“If you just keep grinding it out and making a few pars, you know you’re going to move up the board, so I think just giving yourself a bit of credit for making pars which you probably wouldn’t normally do,” Brown said on how he remained calm under such intense pressure.

“In most other golf tournaments, you’ve got to shoot three, four, five-under and be on to have a good shift up the board but when you’re playing in poor conditions, you know that level-par is a good score and it’s going to move you up, so you just have to keep grinding away and churning out pars. It’s almost a case of you don’t really think about making birdies, they just kind of come along. You’re just wanting to get off the hole with a par and move on and just keep going.”

If you’re leading, or one shot off the lead, heading into the last round of a major, you will probably be paired with Scottie Scheffler. This was indeed who Brown enjoyed his afternoon stroll with on the final day in pursuit of the Claret Jug, a thrill in itself however the man from Romanby Golf Club wasn’t intimidated by the two-time Masters champion and World No.1, and he didn’t need to be.

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“It was really cool. He was a really nice guy to chat so it felt comfortable, it didn’t feel like I was playing with the World No.1, but obviously, you could tell why he is where he is,” he added.

“It probably wasn’t the best indication of his game. Playing in America he’s probably not used to those conditions and playing in The Open. If I played with him in America, it would be a lot different, but yeah, he’s a really nice guy and we have some good chats. Ted his caddie as well. We had an enjoyable Sunday.”

In defeat, Brown earned some consolation. He finished high enough on the leaderboard that he guaranteed himself a spot at the 2025 Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, a course that allowed him to reminisce on his amateur days, days during which he won the 2015 Dutch Amateur and the 2016 English Amateur Open.

He was 500/1 to win when turning up to Troon in July. I don’t think the bookies will allow such daylight next year when Brown no doubt receives warm applause from UK fans who are never quick to forget the events of previous Opens and the excitement he brought to the spectators in Scotland.

“I played it a few times, I played the British Amateur there in 2014 and then we played the home internationals there in 2015, I’ve played it a good few times.

“I managed to do quite well in both of those weeks, and I remember really enjoying the golf course. I think it’s a little bit different now with the last two holes that we played being taken out and there are two new ones, so that’ll be interesting. But yeah, I love the area, I love the golf course, and I can’t wait to get back.”

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Dan Brown: The Open was ‘a blur’ for two days! Could we ever seen him become Dan Brown ‘The Open Championship winner?’ Let us know if you enjoyed this piece on X!