Cullan Brown looks to continue improving heading into the final round of the NCAA Athens Regional
ATHENS, GA — Kentucky’s Cullan Brown recorded a solid performance during Tuesday’s second round of the 2019 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Golf Championship Athens Regional to keep Kentucky within striking distance of the NCAA Championship qualifying fifth place position.
On a par-71 course, Brown recorded the team’s worst score during round one on Monday, but rebounded to finish round two with the team’s second best score at 1-over-par.
Brown, Kentucky’s lone starting freshman, has posted impressive numbers throughout the course of the spring season, despite having missed the fall season due to injury.
“It was a definite issue not being able to play in the fall and having to come back from that and get sharp again,” said Brown. “But it was a good opportunity to work on some parts of the game that I usually wouldn’t have worked on as much.”
Brown recorded two top 10 finishes and four top 20 finishes this spring. His best performance came on April 5-7 at the Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tennessee, where he finished 7-under-par and tied for fifth, shooting a 206 after 54 holes.
“I would say it was as much of a blessing as it was a curse to push through and deal with that injury,” said Brown. “It really prepared me for this spring because we play a lot of golf and we travel a lot. It gave me a real drive and the ‘want to’ to get out there and play well.”
As a true freshman, this is Brown’s first NCAA Regional, and just his seventh career start.
“Almost everything seems different,” Brown said. “It’s a different field here, it’s a different style golf course than we play a lot and the atmosphere is different. You can just feel that it’s a bigger tournament and everybody is amped up and having a lot of fun.”
After an 8-over-par round one, Brown flipped the switch on his game during round two. His front nine during round one resulted in a 6-over-par score, while round two found him situated at par.
Brown’s back nine was more consistent, as he shot 2-over-par and 1-over-par in rounds one and two, respectively.
Brown will head into tomorrow’s final round at 9-over-par and tied for 49th, 13 shots back from leaders Davis Thompson and Spencer Ralston of Georgia.
“Cullan played beautiful golf today,” said Kentucky head coach Brian Craig. “He hit the ball well all around and putt better than yesterday. I think yesterday just wasn’t his day and I’m not surprised he bounced back from that performance.”
The weather also played a role in the outcome of Brown’s rounds thus far, as yesterday’s wind conditions were not ideal, contributing to a few more missed shots than Brown wanted.
“The wind was down quite a bit today which helped me out a lot from Monday’s round,” said Brown. “This course is tough and there were a lot of bogeys out there. You just have to realize that other bogeys can be made, not just by you.”
According to Brown’s grandmother, a nice 72 degrees with minimal wind was perfect for her grandson’s Tuesday round of golf.
“This is the weather Cullan enjoys to play in,” said Brown’s grandmother, Beverly Brown. “He doesn’t really like that super hot or windy stuff so this was perfect for him.”
As a team, Kentucky heads into Wednesday’s final round in 10th place, only three shots back from the NCAA Championship qualifying fifth place position, currently shared between Tennessee, Southern Methodist, Memphis and Nevada. The Wildcats are 24 shots back from the leader Georgia.
“We’ve got to perform the best we can tomorrow to give ourselves a fighting chance,” said head coach Brian Craig. “We know we aren’t going to have that cushion you want heading into the final round, but we’re playing well.”
The Grady Sports Bureau is part of the sports media program at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
