Disappointment for Brown

Mark Brown’s Open dream has ended for 2009 with a 6-over par 76 in windy conditions at Turnberry to miss the cut by three shots. Brown played as well as possible in the windy conditions but it was his putter that let him down with several missed from short distance. Brown started positively with a birdie on the first then chances on two, three, four and five but with nothing going in the hole. The seventh through eleventh were battered by the ferocious winds meaning scrambling was the best anyone could do and Mark made a succession of bogeys before the bleeding stopped on fourteen. Mark hit into the bunker on fifteen at 6-over par with some birdie-able holes to play and hit his bunker shot close but failed to sink the par-saving short putt for a costly bogey. The difficult 16th was played well and again the putting escaped him as he should have made birdie and again on 17. A safe par on 18 concluded the week for Brown. In some ways there was a lot of promise shown after his recent poor form but the frustration was increased knowing how close he came to playing the weekend of the Open. Mark will now have three weeks off before the KLM Open in Holland starting the 20th of August.