When meeting him for the pro-am on Wednesday he was surprisingly fresh and still very upbeat from the experience the few days before. This was the first time Brandt had seen the course, however had heard about it from his friend Matt Kuchar, who won the previous year.
Since Brandt was the major draw card for the event he played with the top tournament organisers and sponsors who were exceptionally friendly and provided great hospitality for both Brandt and myself throughout the entire week.
Getting a feel for the course and interacting with playing partners is general what takes place during pro-ams. Brandt’s tee time schedule for the first two days was late then early which suited him fine. The first day was a little breezy in the latter parts of the afternoon but if you played well you could have a good score. He shot -3 for the first round, was four shots from the leader but it was a solid start. For the second round, Brandt took full advantage of the early calm weather and played a flawless bogey free round of -7. Including a tremendous drive then a 5 iron to 6ft that set him up for an eagle on the par 5 6th hole. This two-round total of -10 placed him in 2nd position and just 1 shot from the lead going into Saturday.
Saturday’s third round proved to be quite difficult as the wind picked up to around 30km/h. Brandt played extremely well under these conditions just having one bogey. There were very few to break par that day and his -2 put him 3 shots clear going into the final round on Sunday.
On both Saturday and Sunday, Brandt was paired with the same players in the leading group. They were two very young up and coming Australian professionals that hadn’t won a big event yet. I had a good feeling that his level of play and experience would exceed there’s and there wasn’t really anyone of note from further down on the leaderboard that was making an impact.
Sunday was again very windy and Brandt played a superb front 9 of -4 that shot him 7 clear with just 9 holes to play. It was at this time I kind of felt there was no stopping him however there was a mishap on the 10th that could have made things a lot more interesting.
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