Sweet Georgia Brown! Ex-Bulldog Claims U.S. Senior Am Title
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.
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 143 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.”
“Actually, I'm not really a tournament golfer, so I've got to decide what I want to do. It's great to get these invites. But if I'm going to play in these things, I have to commit.” – Louis Brown on the exemptions he receives for winning the U.S. Senior Amateur
“I hit the ball a decent distance for a guy my age, but if I'm going to play in that league (U.S. Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur), I'm going to have to get in the gym. I've got to get my club head speed up, which is possible. Less work and more exercise.” – Brown
“It's been an unbelievably awesome week. Just to get here was a big goal for me, and to get this far was even more special. The staff here has been awesome to me, and given all the history that I've had here, I couldn't have asked for much better of an outcome.” – Dan Sullivan
“That [2005 U.S. Mid-Amateur at The Honors Course] was actually my first USGA event, so I was a little in awe of the whole experience. Getting here was a big step, and then again continuing forward from there. To make the finals of a USGA event is awesome in and of itself. Hopefully I can do this again because I had so much fun.” – Sullivan
“Not having to qualify is awesome. I think it's the hardest part is getting into the event. Once you're there, anything can happen.” – Sullivan on his three-year U.S. Senior Amateur exemption for being runner-up
David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.