Golf: No-fuss Brown looks to continue momentum

Mark Brown. Photo / Getty Images

Long one of New Zealand golf's quiet achievers, Mark Brown's 2013 was true to form; unfussy, hard working and pretty impressive.

After a slow start, the world No 307 enjoyed a cracking end of year run. Playing overseas until just days before Christmas, Brown followed a strong finish at December's Australian Open by qualifying in California for this year's Web.com tour.

"The second half of the year was very positive," Brown says. "The first half, I didn't play very much - only a handful of tournaments in Australia and Asia and had a big break - so it was really hard to get into any sort of rhythm.

"Mind you, I just tend to take a little while to get going at the start of each year. The more I play, the more matches I get, the better I play."

After tying for 44th in July's British Open - for which he qualified by setting a course record at Melbourne's Kingston Heath - he went on to finish in a tie for fourth in October's China Masters. The best was yet to come though, with an impressive sixth-equal finish in the Australian Open.

"It was definitely a good way to finish the year," he says. "I'd been playing reasonably steadily but not having any really good results on the Aussie tour. I made the cut on the Perth International and New South Wales Open, but to finish strongly like that on the last event was pretty good."

Brown reckons it could have been even better: "I was hanging around 15th or something like that and then I shot a 66 on Saturday and shot up the leaderboard. I started off really well on the last day when I was three under but I made a triple bogey on 12 and was back to even par."

Despite the poor start, he recovered to birdie four of the last six holes to shoot 69 and jump into sixth, tied with Australian golfers Jason Day and Matthew Jones, 10 shots behind champion Rory McIlroy.

After a deserved break - a week-long, phone-free tramp through the Coromandel providing a clean getaway from anything related to golf - Brown is back on the course and getting ready for what looks to be a busy year.

The first big tournament is the New Zealand Open next month. Last year, he finished a solid fourth; this time, he's shooting for a win.

"I had a great chance to win last year," he says. "I went into the final round leading by two but ended up three shots back, so it'd be great to have another chance to win it."

Although he played on the European Tour for a time, winning the Johnny Walker Classic back in 2008, Brown now spends most of his time playing in Australia and Asia.

It is, he says, always a welcome experience to get to play back home.

"[Travelling] can get a bit much sometimes, so that's why it's good to come back every now and then. Sometimes you feel a bit more pressure because you're playing in front of family and friends but I tend to really enjoy it.

"Over the last three years, I've had some really good results - fourth in the New Zealand Open, second at the NZ PGA in 2012, while last year I finished 21st at the NZ PGA. I'm looking forward to it - it's going to be a great week in Queenstown."

Not, in his words, a "goal-oriented person", the 37-year-old nonetheless has a few key aims this year; to go well in the New Zealand Open, lift his world ranking and hopefully ease into the New Zealand top two. He's also looking for some good results on the Web.com tour - his entry is conditional, meaning he may have more opportunities depending on early results.

He'll have a good chance of pulling that off if he carries over his impressive 2013 form. Not that he'll do any of it with a lot of fuss.

"I don't tend to get a lot of publicity or seek it, for that matter. I'm more into playing to compete. I love the competition. I've won two titles internationally but I guess that's a small number for me, since I feel like I'm a better player than that. So that's the goal. I'm not overly interested in the financial aspect of it; I just put my head my head down and try to play well. I'll let my results do the talking."