It is quite something to challenge at the Open and simultaneously represent a potential fire hazard. Dan Brown\u2019s propensity to smoke on the golf course is a throwback \u2013 Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer enjoyed a puff mid-round \u2013 yet not particularly notable in ordinary circumstances.<\/p>\n
This is no typical Open. The scorched conditions at Royal Birkdale mean spectators are being asked to \u201cmaintain vigilance\u201d over anything that could constitute a fire risk. Players are under precisely the same instructions. Brown reckons he smoked \u201cseven or eight\u201d cigarettes while en route to an excellent 66, which placed the 31-year-old in a share of the lead until Jackson Suber\u2019s late run to five under par. Brown seems unlikely to find himself at the fag end of proceedings by the Open\u2019s conclusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve not been told otherwise,\u201d said Brown when asked whether he was permitted to puff away. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been making sure that they are [put] out [when finished].<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully I can do it for the rest of the week. There might be a big drop-off [in golf standard] by Sunday if I\u2019m not allowed to. Stress levels go up, then the more I end up having.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad actually used to smoke. I always told him when I was a kid to stop smoking. Then he did stop and then I ended up starting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown, the son of a pig farmer, shot to prominence during a terrific run at the 2024 Open. He eventually tied 10th at Royal Troon. There is more to his story than most golfers; Brown has, for example, 10 tattoos. \u201cThey\u2019re all quite small ones,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe first one I got was probably only three years ago so I\u2019ve gone a\u00a0bit\u00a0mad really. I don\u2019t really want any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another tilt at this major is far more appealing. Understandably, Brown was asked what learnings he had gathered from 2024. \u201cBasically just the fact that I feel like I can compete in a major and in an Open Championship,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m a better player now to what I was back then, two years ago. So we will see. Obviously it\u2019s only Thursday, but hopefully I\u2019m in a sort of similar area on the leaderboard come Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a very nice day. Tee to green, it\u2019s similar to how I\u2019ve been playing recently. But today a few putts dropped, which was nice to see because I\u2019ve not seen that for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is quite something to challenge at the Open and simultaneously represent a potential fire hazard. Dan Brown\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-695381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}