Andy DevaneyHamish Brown will take a two-stroke lead into the weekend at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge after following his opening 66 with a three-under-par 69 at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil, moving to nine under and leaving a useful little gap between himself and the chasing pack.
It was not, by his own assessment, a day of silk and symphony. More like a man trying to conduct an orchestra while the violins had gone missing and the brass section had fallen into a bunker. Still, scorecards have never cared much for artistic impression, and Brown’s had the look of a player who knows how to keep a round upright when the game is wobbling.
Brown Leads By Two After A Day For Patience
The Dane sits two clear of Norwegian Kristian Krogh Johannessen and French pair Julien Sale and Julien Brun, who share second place heading into the weekend.
Brown’s Friday round contained five birdies and two blemishes, which sounds tidy enough until you listen to the man who signed for it. He was happy with the number. He was rather less enchanted with the machinery that produced it.
“It was hard,” he said. “There was a different wind direction and my iron play was a shambles to say the least. Difficult day but good grinding, happy with the grinding, just need to figure out the iron play.
“The course conditions were what I expected, a little more bouncy, a little harder to get it to the hole, harder to hold the fairways.
“It was a different wind direction, so there were some harder drives. It was difficult and was probably a good protection for the course.”
That is the sort of honesty golfers tend to reserve for close friends, caddies and occasionally the bottom of a pint glass. Yet it also explains why Brown is in front. Tournament golf is not a beauty contest. S
ome days are for striping it, strutting about and pretending the game is easy. Others are for making a nuisance of yourself, saving pars, pinching birdies and refusing to let the course have the last word.
Near Albatross, Late Escape, And A Two-Shot Cushion
There was almost a moment of theatre at the eighth, where Brown came close to an albatross as his ball ran narrowly past the hole. The reward was still a two-putt birdie, which is rather like missing out on a sports car and being handed the keys to a very respectable saloon. Not quite the dream, but hardly a hardship.
Then came the ninth, his final hole, where trouble off the tee threatened to nibble into the lead he had been constructing with such stubborn care. From just over 100 yards, Brown produced the kind of up-and-down that keeps a leaderboard looking pleasant and a golfer’s blood pressure within reasonable medical limits.
That closing save took him into the clubhouse at nine under, with enough daylight between himself and the field to matter, but not enough to relax. Two rounds remain, and golf has a long memory for anyone who gets ahead of himself.
Conservative Plan Remains The Weekend Strategy
Brown’s gameplan has not been built on wild attacks. Into the greens, he has leaned towards restraint, choosing caution over heroics on a course that became firmer, bouncier and less accommodating as the wind changed direction.
“Into the greens I’ve been trying to be conservative, it didn’t really work out today because I didn’t strike it well enough to hit the middle parts. You can really make a lot of mistakes if you start pitching it outside of the green. But I think my plan is good enough to keep doing that, I just need to hit the middle of the ball a little bit more and we’ll be fine.
“It’s the second round, you can’t win it on a Friday but you can put yourself out of it. I just tried to stick to my gameplan, set up as many chances as possible and take it from there. I didn’t set up that many to be honest but happy with the grinding, and looking forward to tomorrow.
“We’re all here to win but there’s two rounds to go and I don’t even know what the standings are. I’ve played decent golf, I’m going to try and keep going, set up as many chances as I can and we’ll see Sunday afternoon how it goes.”
There is sense in that. Friday is rarely the day a tournament is won, but it is a terrific day to lose one with a couple of greedy swings and a conversation with a lateral hazard. Brown avoided that fate. He did not dazzle his way clear; he wrestled his way there.
Chasers Queue Up Behind Brown
Behind the top four, there is no shortage of players close enough to make the weekend awkward. Italy’s Jacopo Vecchi Fossa, France’s Benjamin Kedochim, South Africa’s Wilco Nienaber, Australia’s Austin Bautista, Peru’s Julian Perico and Germany’s Michael Hirmer share fifth place on six under par.
That group is three shots behind Brown, which is near enough to apply pressure and far enough to require something sharper than politeness. Nienaber’s presence alone adds electricity, while the French interest through Sale, Brun and Kedochim gives the home crowd plenty to keep an eye on as the tournament deepens.
For Brown, the challenge now is wonderfully simple and fiendishly difficult: keep doing the sensible things, find a better relationship with the irons, and avoid turning a lead into a lecture in missed opportunity.
Third-Round Tee Times Set The Stage
The third round gets under way on Saturday at 7.35 am local time, with Brown teeing off alongside Johannessen at 1.40 pm.
By then, the course will have had another chance to firm up, the wind may choose another personality, and the leaderboard will begin its usual weekend mischief. Brown has the advantage, but not the luxury.
He has ground out a lead at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge. Now he has to prove it can survive the part of the week where scoreboards start to breathe down your neck.
