Aberdeen, Scotland -- When Steven Brown started his tremendous run of form with a 7-and-5 win in the final of the English Amateur Championship at Woburn in July little did he think it would culminate with him becoming the man who clinched the 43rd Walker Cup for Great Britain & Ireland.
Considered one of the last picks for the team, the 24-year-old got off to a shaky start going down heavily with Stiggy Hodgson in a 5-and-3 defeat to Patrick Cantlay and Chris Williams from the USA. However, his good form returned in the afternoon holding on for a 1-up victory against Russell Henley.
But it all came down to his long two-putt on the last hole of Royal Aberdeen on Sunday afternoon.
Standing next to the 18th green shortly after securing victory, Brown said: It’s unbelievable, I’m just so happy. I didn’t know it was coming down to me. I tried not to look because I didn’t want it to make any difference but it’s just great that we won. We were all happy that we got picked but we all wanted to be on a winning Walker Cup team. To win is just unbelievable.
It rounds off an exceptional year for the Wentworth-based player. A week after the English Amateur he narrowly lost a three-hole playoff for the European Amateur title. Indeed, it was this late burst of form that also included being the third leading qualifier in this year’s British Amateur Championship.
Also runner-up in this year’s Scottish Stroke Play Championship, Brown has made a lot of friends this weekend with his polite, quiet and unassuming manner both on and off the course. Personal glory was clearly not an aim, just a quirk of timing according to the Englishman. Asked if he had dreamt of this moment, he was quick to insist he was not playing for himself this weekend.
I didn’t just want to win myself, said Brown after the 14-12 victory.
I didn’t care if I won four points or one point or no points if we won. That’s all that mattered. We’re a team. The team spirit has been unbelievable all week. We’ve been in it together and to actually win as a team is unbelievable.
John Robertson is a media and editorial manager for The R&A. E-mail him at johnrobertson@randa.org.