Conner Brown Wins Tennessee Match Play Championship

Conner Brown captured his first Tennessee Golf Association title with a 4 and 3 victory over Trenton Johnson in the final of the 26th Tennessee Match Play Championship at Vanderbilt Legends Club’s South Course.

Brown, a 21 year old from Shelbyville and a rising senior at Belmont University, turned the match after falling 2 down through two holes. He won four of the next five holes to take a 2 up lead at the turn, extended the margin with a birdie at the par 3 eleventh, and closed the match with a birdie on the fifteenth.

His path to the final repeatedly ran through the eighteenth hole. In pool play, a birdie at the last earned a halve against Seth Brandon and secured advancement. In the Round of 16, he beat Taylor Mottern 1 up with another birdie at eighteen. In the semifinal against Will Jackson, Brown birdied eighteen to force extra holes, then birdied eighteen again to win in 19 holes.

Johnson reached the final by defeating Ryan Ward 2 up. The front nine was all square. Ward birdied the tenth, bogeyed the eleventh to return the match to even, birdied the fifteenth to go 1 up, and then Johnson won the sixteenth with par, birdied the seventeenth for a 1 up lead, and birdied the eighteenth to close it out.

Brown’s name will be added to the Jackson Cup, honoring Tennessee great Tim Jackson.

Source: The Chattanoogan: Conner Brown Earns First TGA Title At Tennessee Match Play