Golf: New tricks in Brown's bag

Northland's number one golfer Luke Brown in action.

Luke Brown has once again shown his class with a third place finish at the Waikato Winter Strokeplay.

Northland's number one-ranked golfer battled with the elements in unpleasant windy and wet conditions at the Riversdale-Lochiel course.

Brown played solid golf throughout the weekend, carding a trio of 72s following his first-round 68.

He finished four under for the tournament, saying that he played solid all tournament but couldn't quite get on the roll that he needed to catch the eventual winner, Nick Coxon (-7).

"I was within one shot of the lead with 5 to play but bogeyed the 15th and then found a hazard on the 17th which pretty much ruled out a hot finish to put any pressure on Nick," he said.

While the third place finish wasn't exactly what he was after, there were plenty of reasons for Brown to smile.

He recently returned from Europe where he plied his trade against some of the best amateur golfers in the world in the most testing conditions.

The experience seems to be paying off after defending his Bream Bay Classic title and now carding a great effort in tough conditions.

"You learn pretty quickly that you either get the better of the conditions or let the conditions get the better of you," he said.

Brown now has his eyes set on a strong weekend at the Bay of Plenty Open at the Whakatane Golf Course, where he will line up against New Zealand Eisenhower players Luke Toomey and Ryan Chisnall.

Northland number two Christian Nitsche is also a part of a strong field made up of both professionals and amateurs.

"I'm feeling confident, the Europe trip definitely helped improve my game but mentally I'm stronger and digging deeper to grind out a score on the course," he said.

"At Bream Bay, I was four over through 10 holes and still managed to fight back and win so I'm really happy with how things are progressing".

The Bay of Plenty open starts today.