Dan Brown overcomes tee drama to get just rewards at Aronimink

Dan Brown was happy to see his play get the score it deserved as he overcame a “dramatic slice” to card an impressive opening 68 at the US PGA Championship.

The Englishman took the final dual membership available via the Race to Dubai in 2025 but has so far missed six of nine individual cuts on the PGA TOUR, including his last four, although he is refusing to be downhearted.

Brown feels his results have not necessarily been a reflection of the way he has played and he is determined to keep grinding as he finds his feet in the United States.

“I don’t feel like I’ve played too badly at the start of this year,” he said. “I don’t think my results have been reflecting how I’ve been playing but I’ve just had to make a couple of adjustments being out here with the quicker greens and the firmer greens.

“There’s been a couple of set-up changes within the bag and myself as well trying to adapt and learn on the job and learn as quick as possible.

“I don’t feel like I’ve been too far away but for whatever reason luck’s not really been on my side. I can’t really put my finger on why it’s not been clicking but you’ve just got to keep doing the simple stuff and not getting too bogged down in technical stuff.

“I feel like I’ve been playing OK so I’ll just try and grind it out and hopefully get some results on the other side.”

One of those results could come this week at Aronimink Golf Club after Brown overcame his issues on the tee to get to two under after round one.

He cancelled out four birdies with four bogeys but also made a spectacular hole-out eagle from 106 yards on the 11th to sit just one shot off the early lead.

“I played great in the practice days, didn’t miss many fairways and then today I was battling a bit of a dramatic slice so I was just trying to manage it all day,” he said.

“I managed to hit some good tee shots coming in on the last few holes so I think I might have kind of figured it out but I’ll be going to the range.

“I’m happy with the score and thankfully hit enough good shots out there to polish up the scorecard.”

On his eagle, he added: “It's so uphill you can't see anything and the green sits like you're obviously quite steep back to front.

“So I had 106 and normally... I would have probably been sort of like hitting a little soft 54 in there, but you just can't have any spin on that green. So I went up to a 50 and really kind of chipped one in and just tried to take all the spin off.

“We were trying to pitch it ten short of the number and I think we were there, thereabouts.

Then obviously you can't see anything, and you try to hit it a little left of the flag because you know it kind of feeds in and you're just hoping it goes close.

“Obviously a big bonus, the crowd going wild at the back, and you kind of know it's gone in.”