Louis Brown wins U.S. Senior Amateur in his first tournament start in 11 months

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Louis Brown of Marietta, Ga., found a shortcut to the finish line of a long week in the U.S. Senior Amateur on Thursday, by staking himself to an early lead to set up a 4-and-3 victory over Daniel Sullivan in the championship match at the Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn.

Brown, 61, who played college golf at Georgia, won the first three holes, was 4 up through nine, and 5 up with five holes remaining before ending the match on the 15th hole.

“I haven’t done everything I wanted to do in golf, but I’ve won some tournaments,” he said. “I’ve won some stuff in Georgia that’s pretty meaningful. But the one thing that I thought would be huge for me would be to win a USGA event, and this was the only one. I can’t hit it far enough for the Mid-Am the way the golf ball goes today, so this was the one. It’s huge.”

It was a lot of golf for a reinstated amateur, who like most of those in the field, has a job, his as a partner in a financial investment firm. After his 1-up victory over Robert Nelson in the semifinal a day earlier, he noted the amount of golf he had played to that point. “I work. I run a business. I’m not used to playing this much, working on my game,” he said. “But it’s a thrill to be here competing.”

He said after his victory over Sullivan that this was the first tournament he had played since last September.

“That definitely has to be the thing I’m most proud of is that I could win this golf tournament having not played a golf tournament for 11 months,” he said. “All I can tell you is I played a lot of tournament golf a long time ago. I never stopped working on my game. I practice, and I know what’s important, which is short game. My short game is not always there, but it was pretty good this week.”

After playing 37 holes the day before in the quarterfinals and semifinals, Brown said he went to the putting green to get a faulty putting stroke straightened out. “That made all the difference. It freed my stroke up. I putted great.”

Sullivan, 57, a real estate lender who played only intramural golf in college at USC, said he “did not play well at all. Three bogeys is not a recipe for success. Give him credit. He played great. He made four birdies in the first eight holes or seven holes.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com