Louis Brown (USGA Photo)
The Georgia state line is only about 15 miles from The Honors Course, so maybe it was apropos that a player from the Peach State walked away with the Frederick L. Dold Trophy on Thursday as the 69th U.S. Senior Amateur champion.
Louis Brown, 61, of Marietta, defeated
Dan Sullivan, 57, of Pasadena, Calif., 4 and 3, in the 18-hole championship match on yet another sunny and hot day in southern Tennessee. Brown, a former tour and teaching pro competing in his third U.S. Senior Amateur, becomes the fifth player from his state to win this championship, all in the last 25 years. He joins Bill Ploeger (1999),
Doug Hanzel (2013),
Bob Royak (2019), and
Rusty Strawn (2022) as a Senior Am champion.
Brown came into the week ranked No. 240 in the AmateurGolf.com Senior Rankings.
Sullivan, playing in his 13th USGA championship and first U.S. Senior Amateur, was bidding to become the first Southern Californian to hoist the trophy since fellow University of Southern California graduate Kemp Richardson claimed the second of his two titles in 2003. Northern California native Jeff Wilson (Fairfield) won in 2018.
Both players are exempt into next year’s U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., as well as next month’s U.S. Mid-Amateur at Kinloch Golf Club in Virginia, and the 2025 U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club, in San Francisco.
Brown’s association with the USGA began with the 1981 U.S. Junior Amateur at Sunnyside Country Club in Fresno, Calif., when he advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to a Southern Californian, Scott Erickson, of Villa Park, by a 4-and-3 margin. Forty-three years later, he won a title by that same score against another player from that region.
“I haven't done everything I wanted to do in golf, but I've won some tournaments,” said Brown, who was the Australian Tour’s Rookie of the Year in 1989. “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.”
Brown, who lost in the Round of 64 in his two previous U.S. Senior Amateur starts in 2018 and 2023, was a two-time All-Southeastern Conference performer for the University of Georgia in the 1980s before turning pro and traveling the world to chase his dreams. That included stints in Australia and Canada. He played in nine PGA Tour events, with his best finish a T-16 in the 1991 Buick Southern Open. He also played in 26 Hogan/Nike Tour events before taking his career in a different direction.
Brown, the 1985 Georgia State Amateur champion and two-time runner-up (1982, 1984), regained his amateur status “around 2005,” about the time he became a partner and wealth management advisor for a financial firm. But even with that career change, Brown did not play much tournament golf; his last event before this week’s U.S. Senior Amateur was 11 months ago.
It didn’t look like it at The Honors Course, where he was one of four competitors to break par during the 36-hole, stroke-play portion of the event, posting 1-under 141 to earn the No. 3 seed.
Then he methodically ran through his opponents, including a 19-hole quarterfinal win over Andrew Whitacre and a 1-up decision in the semifinals over Robert Nelson, who hours earlier had eliminated the defending champion, Todd White. Brown also survived a 2-up tussle with fellow Georgian Jack Hall in the Round of 32.
Brown admitted he struggled on the greens on Wednesday, so he spent some time working on his stroke after his semifinal victory and regained his form.
Against Sullivan, he came out firing, converting 10-foot birdie putts on the first two holes, and then getting up and down for a winning par on the 211-yard, par-3 third. His lone blemish on the outward nine was a bogey at the fifth that led to Sullivan trimming the margin to 2 down.
“I putted great at the beginning of this tournament, and then yesterday I just lost the feel,” said Brown. “I did a little practice after 37 holes yesterday. I actually went and putted a little bit. I kept my caddie out here. I feel bad for him. That made all the difference. It freed my stroke up.”
Brown followed with birdies on Nos. 6 and 7 to push the margin to 4 up. The next five holes were tied, but Sullivan, a semifinalist in the 2016 and 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateurs, had good birdie opportunities at Nos. 9 and 12, lipping out a 15-footer on the latter. He also went for the green on the 554-yard, par-5 11th in two, only to find the front-left greenside bunker, where it took him two shots to get on the green and a remarkable 20-foot par putt to tie the hole.
“That was a tough bunker shot,” said Sullivan of his third shot on No. 11. “Really the problem was hitting my first ball into that bunker from the fairway.
“I didn't play well at all. Three bogeys are not a recipe for success. Give him credit; he played great. He made four birdies in the first eight holes or seven holes.”
Sullivan, the runner-up in the senior division of the Lupton Memorial played annually at The Honors Course and winner of the Southern California Senior Match Play in early August, thinned his approach on the 13th, leading to a double-bogey 6 and a 5-up advantage for Brown. Brown gave away the par-3 14th with a poor tee shot that left him short-sided, but he closed out the match on No. 15 by two-putting from 45 feet, the last a 5-footer.
“All I can tell you is I played a lot of tournament golf a long time ago,” said Brown, whose last big win came in the 2020 Georgia State Senior Amateur. “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.
“I think that's how. I know what to do, but when you don't play tournaments, it's just hard to get comfortable. I was able to get pretty comfortable this week.”
What the Champion Receives
- A gold medal
- Possession of the Frederick L. Dold Trophy for one year
- Exemptions into the next 10 U.S. Senior Amateur Championships
- Exemption into the 2025 U.S. Senior Open Championship at The Broadmoor, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Exemptions into the 2024 and 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championships at Kinloch Golf Club, in Manakin-Sabot, Va., and Troon Country Club, in Scottsdale, Ariz., respectively
- Exemptions into the 2025 and 2026 U.S. Amateur Championships at The Olympic Club, in San Francisco, Calif., and Merion Golf Club, in Ardmore, Pa.
- Exemption from local qualifying for the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club
- Name inscribed on the 2024 USGA Champions’ plaque that will reside in the Hall of Champions at the USGA Museum & Library, in Liberty Corner, N.J.
Notable
- Runner-up Dan Sullivan received a silver medal as well as an exemption into the 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur, 2025 U.S. Senior Open and 2025 U.S. Amateur. He also earns an exemption into the next three U.S. Senior Amateur Championships.
- The 2025 U.S. Senior Amateur will be held at Biltmore Forest Country Club, in Asheville, N.C.
- Jim Srite, of Knoxville, Tenn., and a member at The Honors Course, served as the referee for the championship match.
- Champion Louis Brown will be paired in next year’s U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor with defending champ Richard Bland and 2024 Senior British Open winner K.J. Choi.
- Brown’s two daughters, Hailey Brown and Lauren Brown, both made the two-hour trip from Atlanta to watch their father play as did his sister, Kathryn Jenkins. Also supporting Brown was his University of Georgia college roommate/teammate Bob Sargent, and a former junior golf rival Jeff Sherrill, who went to Furman University.
- Dan Sullivan received a surprise visit from his wife, Lindsay, who took a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to watch her husband compete in his first USGA championship match. The couple has two grammar-school age children, Travis (10) and Chloe (7).
- Of the 17 players in the field who competed in the 2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur at The Honors Course, just two advanced past the Round of 32: finalist Sullivan and fellow Southern Californian Tim Hogarth, the 1996 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion.
- Brown is a member at Atlanta Country Club, which was the site of the inaugural Players Championship in 1974 and two USGA championships, including the 1968 U.S. Senior Amateur. Larry Nelson, the 1983 U.S. Open champion, also plays out of ACC as does past PGA Tour winner Joe Inman.
- Brown’s caddie for the week was Hawk Nucara, who has been at The Honors Course for 21 years. He also caddied on the PGA Tour for Tommy Armour III, Stan Utley and Jay Delsing. He was on Utley’s bag when he won the 1989 Chattanooga Classic and carried for Delsing when he captured the 2002 Omaha Classic on the Buy.com Tour.
- Brown’s late father, Johnny Brown, was a sportswriter/editor for 50 years for the Newnan (Ga.) Times-Union, as well as working in radio and serving as the Coweta County Commissioner.
- Blakesly Brock, the 2021 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion and honorary member at The Honors Course, was in attendance for the final. She assisted with player registration last week.