Dan Brown certainly does not possess several hallmarks of your typical elite sportsperson.
The softly-spoken 30-year-old golfer does not go to the gym, pays little attention to his weekly earnings, and can occasionally be spotted smoking a cigarette during rounds.
But you have to say it’s working for him. After his second DP World Tour win at the BMW International Open a couple of weekends ago, Brown is now 108th in the world and with a real chance of securing a golden ticket to the PGA Tour next season.
It marks a significant rise from this time 12 months ago, when the Yorkshireman pitched up at Royal Troon for his major championship debut as a complete outsider and ranked 272nd in the world.
But after a superb first-round 65 saw him take the first-round lead, Brown spent the weekend tussling with the game’s best en route to a £246,000 payday and an impressive tenth-place finish which secured his berth at this year’s Open at Royal Portrush.
Third and fourth rounds paired alongside former Open champion Shane Lowry and World No1 Scottie Scheffler might have proved a daunting task for many a seasoned pro, but the level-headed Brown relished the task.
‘It sounds daft but I wasn’t bothered at all,’ Brown recalls, speaking to Metro ahead of this week’s tournament. ‘I think Tiger Woods is probably the only person who could have fazed me if I was standing on the tee alongside them.
‘I was 25, living at home, and still skint’
‘The only weird thing for me was watching my brother (Brown’s caddy for the week) just walk and talk with Scottie. You stand back and just think, ‘Yeah this is pretty cool’.
‘I’ve always been there for him and tried to help him, and now he’s walking down the fairway chatting with the best player in the world. That was definitely a pinch-me moment.’
Brown’s headline-making week saw overnight interest in his story but the unrelenting news cycle has long since moved on. A career away from the spotlight is what he prefers anyway.
‘That’s what I like about being a golfer – nobody knows who you are walking down the street,’ Brown jokes.
‘Even some of the top 20 in the world could walk down a high street and most people wouldn’t have a clue, which is a nice thing about golf.’
Some might characterise Brown’s words as a lack of ambition, but it is quite the opposite. Having turned professional in 2017, it was, in fact, the relentless focus on money and rankings that saw him fall off the Challenge Tour and almost quit the game entirely before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘When I was 22, 23 I was always thinking about how much I’d won or how much I’d lost – that was my downfall,’ he explains.
‘I did pack it in, and I was going to quit. I didn’t touch my clubs for about five or six months, didn’t hit a single golf shot. Then Covid hit and I found myself trapped in the house looking for a job. I was 25, living at home, still skint and waking up every day just doing nothing.
‘I probably never thought I was good enough’
‘Your mind starts running away with you and one morning I had one of those lightbulb realisations where I was like: ‘What on earth are you playing at?’ I was giving up on my dream, something I’d wanted since I was about 14.’
Refinding his love for the game, Brown worked his way back to the Challenge Tour before reaching the DP World Tour in 2023, where he won in his maiden season at the ISPS Handa World Invitational.
‘I wouldn’t say it’s been smooth sailing – no golfer’s career ever is – but it’s been steady progression ever since then,’ he says. ‘Quitting the game for five or six months was probably the best thing I ever did.
‘But even then, I didn’t think I would get to where I was. I was going back out to just enjoy it and see where I could get to, maybe enjoy a couple of years on tour.
‘I probably never thought I was good enough to do what I’ve done. To have a top ten in a major and to have won on the DP World Tour, I don’t even think I dreamt about it.’
A knee problem has kept Brown less active than he would have liked this year, but his recent win in Germany means he arrives at the Open in fine fettle.
Expectations and attention will be greater on Brown this time around and the Englishman has reason to be confident, having won as an amateur at Portrush back in 2014.
But if his long, winding road to this point has taught him anything, it’s to stay in his lane and enjoy the ride.
‘I’m really looking forward to being back. It’s somewhere where I’ve had success and some good memories,’ he ends.
‘I’ll be in a house with mates so it will be a nice fun week off the golf course but otherwise, nothing changes. To me, it’s just another four-day tournament; it just so happens to be the Open and my biggest event of the year.’
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