World No. 283 Scott Brown smoothed a 4-under-par 34-33=67 in the first round of the Valspar Championship, good for T7 on the board, three adrift of leader Keegan Bradley.
This is the 37-year-old’s first time in the top 10 after 18 holes since T8 at the 2020 opposite-field Puerto Rico Open 28 starts ago, where he was T8 before fading to T67 as a former winner of the event (2013). His most recent top-10 finish came the start prior to the PRO, a back-door T2 at the Genesis Invitational (71-68-68-68) a little over 14 months ago. The Augusta, Georgia, native is making his ninth straight appearance at the Valspar with one previous top 25, a T7 four tries ago in 2016, where he was T8 after 18 holes (70-69-72-71). On eight (of 13) fairways and 15 greens in regulation, he lost 0.164 strokes around-the-green but gained 0.784 off-the-tee and 0.782 on approach. The University of South Carolina Aiken product squared a lone bogey-5 at hole 6 (3-putt from 75'5"), camouflaged by five circles at 1, 5, 7, 11 and 17, three from between 11 and 23 feet. He recorded 1.800 putts per GIR and 2.705 SG: Putting, aided by two par-savers from between eight and 18 feet. Brown arrived 7-for-15 on the season and off four missed cuts in his last five, including by five at last week’s Zurich teamed with Kevin Kisner (70-73).