The 58th edition has lured 101 entries across seven divisions, embracing 24 clubs from Masterton to Auckland.
Veteran Maraenui club member and Hawke's Bay/Poverty Bay representative Kathy Olsen is the defending division-one champion.
A Sacred Heart College pupil, Brown will play 36 holes today and 18 tomorrow of "full-on matchplay".
Brown, who is starting year 12 next week, is an 11 handicapper in her third tourney although last year she was on a 20 handicap to secure a 26th placing in a field of course-savvy women.
"Last year I got shots so I enjoyed it a bit more but this weekend I'll be playing with people similar to me," she says, revealing in her first year she mixed it up in the stableford division.
Brown comes to the fore when you ask her what she took from her previous outings in dutifully replacing her divots alongside matchplay-hardened women from around the country.
"Rules and etiquette," she replies with that unmistakable surety of a crisp drive which isn't likely to deviate from the well-groomed fairways.
"You know, just how to handle yourself on the course when things aren't going your way and how to bring yourself back from that," she says when asked to elaborate.
Understandably, in a game that can question your personal doctrine more mentally than physically, the teenager used to drop her shoulders or throw her toys, as it were, but she has learned that a modicum of maturity is crucial to hang out with seasoned campaigners.
Beating herself up when her form has slumped isn't an option now.
"You have to trust all your equipment and put everything into the next swing [or putt]."
The most potent weapon for the right-hander is finding distance with her driver.
"My putting is good depending on what kind of a day I'm having," she says with a laugh. "But I'm hitting greens more."
That is the product of catching up with Hastings PGA professional Brian Doyle since she graduated to the HBPB junior ranks two years ago.
"Brian's been awesome. He looks at things in a different way," she says of her once-a-month catch-up visits.
For argument's sake, Doyle has taught her not to focus on how far she can hit a dimpled ball but the fundamentals of swing no matter "how you hit it".
"It's about feeling good about yourself and enjoying the game."
Brown used to grace the floor as a ballet, tap and jazz dancer from the age of 6 but quit at 11.
She umms and aahs when asked why she stopped, considering she was on the national stage, before revealing she "felt like a change".
"I just kind of wanted to do something different and that was a challenge."
Football and hockey at school beckoned but, as providence would have it, the calling from golf came when one day she visited a golf course with her aunty, Maureen Bell, who is coincidentally this weekend's tourney secretary as well as the weekend women's club captain.
"I thought golf was so cool and something I could play all the time."
Bell booked her in for twice-a-week sessions at the golf pro shop and the rest is history.
"Each day is a new day. It's never the same," she says, whittling down her handicap from the 20s to 11 in the past year as tangible endorsement of her progress.
Every round offers the opportunity to make incremental gains or, touch metal wood, losses.
"It's a real head game so in time to come I'll be a lot more resilient," Brown says.
She is also aware it's an individual pursuit where you are the architect of your own success or demise and pointing a finger at someone else won't cut it.
By the end of this year she hopes to be hovering around the 5-7 handicap mark.
"I have to put in heaps and heaps of practice with time on the range, putting, chipping, spending special time with Brian and playing tournaments like this."
Brown is someone who follows her instincts and can be "pretty reckless" in attacking a pin despite the threat of bunkers and trees skirting her approach shot.
She reconciles that with following her HBPB edict of always assessing the risks, "in moderation", but isn't the type who'll die wondering because she's mindful you only become course savvy when you master the inevitable aberrations of playing out of awkward situations.
"The PGA player's doing something like that," is the reasoning of someone who dreams of scaling those dizzying heights but is sober enough to realise she has many more baby steps to take.
No doubt, champion professional Lydia Ko rocks her world.
"She's my idol. Lydia's from New Zealand so she has to be, doesn't she?"
Considering herself "above average" at school, Brown aims to build a "solid academic base for the next two years with NCEA and stuff" before finding a niche in the sport industry.
She suspects she can do New Zealand Golf justice because more females need to play the game.
"It's a big problem here."
So why is that?
"I don't know. Perhaps they are into more girly sports or something."
Her parents, Tracey, a cosmetics supplier, and John Brown, a Port of Napier employee, have always supported her regardless of whether it was dancing or sport.
"Mum's getting up crazy early hours to drive me to every tournament so far."
An American university scholarship would be ideal but it's imperative Brown "stays in the moment", focusing on the next shot while reaching for an appropriate club.
