Mark Brown has won the opening leg of the Jennian Homes Charles Tour in Tauranga today. Playing an outstanding round in difficult conditions, Brown has now achieved back to back Carrus Open wins.
There was no lack of drama at the business end of the tournament around the Tauranga Golf Club. The weather offered wind and rain at random throughout the final day which made for a very challenging finish. As the final group played the 17th it turned into torrential rain and the greens flooded making the course impossible to play.
Once we were able to continue, Brown calmly closed it out in front of a large local crowd.
"Its amazing support here at the club from all the members so it's great to do it in front of them and really exciting timing with the end of the year coming up as well," said Brown.
"The rain was probably a good thing for me, I took five minutes to chill out because I didn't hit a very good shot into 17, it was pouring down and luckily after that I made the putt."
Now a four time winner on the Jennian Homes Charles Tour, Brown showed class as he shot a 68 two under par round. In 2006 he won in Taranaki, his maiden Carrus Open win came in 2012 followed by another in 2014 and now his third title in 2015.
"Yeah it was tough with a lot of wind starting out, so scoring was going to be different to other rounds. I didn't get off to a particularly fast start which you want to do around here, it was just about hanging in and keeping the boys at bay.