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Gordon Brand Jnr

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This article is about the Scottish golfer. For the English golfer, see Gordon J. Brand.

Gordon Brand Jnr
Personal information
Full nameGordon Brand
Born(1958-08-19)19 August 1958
Kirkcaldy, Scotland
Died31 July 2019(2019-07-31) (aged 60)
Ash, Kent, England
Height5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight161 lb (73 kg; 11.5 st)
Sporting nationality Scotland
Career
Turned professional1981
Former tour(s)European Tour
European Senior Tour
Professional wins11
Highest ranking30 (22 May 1988)[1]
Number of wins by tour
European Tour8
PGA Tour of Australasia1
European Senior Tour2
Best results in major championships
Masters TournamentDNP
PGA ChampionshipDNP
U.S. OpenT39: 1994
The Open ChampionshipT5: 1992
Achievements and awards
Sir Henry Cotton
Rookie of the Year		1982

Gordon Brand Jnr (19 August 1958 – 31 July 2019) was a Scottish professional golfer. He played on the European Tour, winning eight times, and later the European Senior Tour, winning twice. He played in the 1979 Walker Cup and played twice in the Ryder Cup, in 1987 and 1989.

Early life and amateur career

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Brand was born in Kirkcaldy.[2] His father, Gordon Brand Snr, was the club professional at Knowle Golf Club in Bristol from 1969 to 2001.[3][4] Brand had a successful amateur career and played for Great Britain and Ireland in the 1979 Walker Cup[5] and in the Eisenhower Trophy in 1978 and 1980. He turned professional in July 1981, with a handicap of plus 1, after failing to make the 1981 Walker Cup team.[6][7]

Professional career

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Brand quickly achieved success as a professional. He won the European Tour Qualifying School in November 1981, and went on to win two European Tour events in his rookie season, and being named the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year for 1982.[8] He went on to accumulate eight wins on the tour in total, the last of them in 1993. He also won the 1988 West End South Australian Open.[9] He made the top ten on the European Tour Order of Merit six times, with a best placing of fourth in 1987. He last made the top one hundred on the Order of Merit in the 2000 season, during which he was runner-up to Ian Poulter in the Italian Open at the age of 42. He continued to play regularly on the tour until 2006.

In the first round of the 1986 Jersey Open he set a European Tour record by making four eagles in a single round.[10][11]

Brand's two Ryder Cup appearances were in 1987, when Europe won on American soil for the first time, and in 1989 when Europe retained the trophy at The Belfry by tying the match 14 all.[12] Brand had a 2–4–1 win–loss–half record, including one half and one loss in his singles matches. He represented Scotland in the Alfred Dunhill Cup and World Cup many times. Playing with Sam Torrance in the 1984 World Cup of Golf in Italy, Scotland finished joint runners-up behind Spain. Brand had the second best individual score.[13] Brand played in the Open Championship 18 times. His best finish was when was tied for 5th place in 1992, having been tied for second place after two rounds.

After reaching 50, Brand played on the European Senior Tour where he won twice, the 2010 Matrix Jersey Classic and the 2013 WINSTONgolf Senior Open. His best season was 2010 where he had a win and two runner-up finishes to finish 4th in the Order of Merit. He was twice runner-up in the PGA Seniors Championship, in 2008 and 2011, both at Slaley Hall. In 2008, in his first event as a senior, he tied with English golfer Gordon J. Brand after 72 holes, but lost at the sixth hole of a sudden-death playoff.[14] Gordon J. Brand used his middle initial to distinguish himself from Gordon Brand Jnr.[4]

Death

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Brand at the age of 60 died suddenly from a heart attack in an ambulance on the 31 July 2019 near Maidstone Kent following a practice round for the Staysure PGA Senior Championship.[10][15][16][17]

Amateur wins

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Professional wins (11)

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European Tour wins (8)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runner(s)-up
1 27 Jun 1982 Coral Classic −15 (69-70-66-68=273) 3 strokes Australia Greg Norman
2 26 Sep 1982 Bob Hope British Classic −16 (65-73-65-69=272) 3 strokes England Mark James
3 12 Aug 1984 Celtic International −8 (67-67-68-70=272) 3 strokes Australia Ian Baker-Finch, Argentina Vicente Fernández,
Scotland Sandy Lyle
4 9 Sep 1984 Panasonic European Open −10 (67-66-73-64=270) 3 strokes Spain Seve Ballesteros, Australia Noel Ratcliffe
5 26 Jul 1987 KLM Dutch Open −16 (69-67-67-69=272) 1 stroke England David A. Russell
6 2 Aug 1987 Scandinavian Enterprise Open −11 (64-71-71-71=277) Playoff Sweden Magnus Persson
7 13 Aug 1989 Benson & Hedges International Open −12 (64-72-72-64=272) 1 stroke England Derrick Cooper
8 12 Sep 1993 GA European Open (2) −13 (65-68-71-71=275) 7 strokes Wales Phillip Price, Northern Ireland Ronan Rafferty

European Tour playoff record (1–1)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 1987 Scandinavian Enterprise Open Sweden Magnus Persson Won with birdie on first extra hole
2 1992 Heineken Dutch Open Germany Bernhard Langer Lost to par on second extra hole

PGA Tour of Australia wins (1)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory		 Runners-up
1 12 Nov 1988 West End South Australian Open −13 (64-69-69-65=267) 7 strokes Australia Greg Alexander, Australia Wayne Grady

European Senior Tour wins (2)

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No. Date Tournament Winning score Margin of
victory 		Runners-up
1 6 Jun 2010 Matrix Jersey Classic −15 (63-66-72=201) 5 strokes South Africa Bobby Lincoln, England Carl Mason
2 8 Sep 2013 WINSTONgolf Senior Open −12 (68-68-68=204) 1 stroke Paraguay Ángel Franco, Scotland Andrew Oldcorn,
England David J. Russell

European Senior Tour playoff record (0–2)

No. Year Tournament Opponent Result
1 2008 De Vere Collection PGA Seniors Championship England Gordon J. Brand Lost to par on sixth extra hole
2 2009 Benahavis Senior Masters England Carl Mason Lost to birdie on second extra hole

Results in major championships

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Tournament 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
U.S. Open
The Open Championship CUT CUT CUT T47 CUT T26 T20 CUT
Tournament 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
U.S. Open T39
The Open Championship CUT T32 T5 CUT T60 CUT CUT 14 T68 T62
  Top 10
  Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Note: Brand never played in the Masters Tournament or the PGA Championship.

Results in senior major championships

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Tournament 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Senior PGA Championship CUT CUT CUT
Senior British Open Championship T32 T41 T12 CUT CUT CUT T51 CUT CUT
  Did not play

"T" indicates a tie for a place
CUT = missed the halfway cut
Note: Brand only played in the Senior PGA Championship and the Senior British Open Championship.

Team appearances

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Amateur

Professional

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Week 21 1988 Ending 22 May 1988" (pdf). OWGR. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  2. ^ "Gordon Brand Junior Holds Andrew Oldcorn at Bay To Win". Scottish Golf View. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  3. ^ "Gordon Brand Senior (1936-2017)". PGA. 6 February 2018.
  4. ^ a b Bonk, Thomas (17 July 1988). "Golf: Fans Foul Up When Names Are the Same". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  5. ^ "Walker Cup – 1979 – HCEG, Muirfield". Walker Cup. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  6. ^ "Gordon Brand Junior – Bio". PGA European Tour. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  7. ^ "Brand Turns Professional". Glasgow Herald. 29 July 1981. p. 15.
  8. ^ "Colin Jackson's "Raise Your Game": Gordon Brand Junior". BBC. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  9. ^ Dempster, Martin (1 August 2019). "Former Ryder Cup player Gordon Brand Jnr dies aged 60". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  10. ^ a b "Gordon Brand Jnr 1958–2019". European Tour. 1 August 2019.
  11. ^ "Brand's 62 set eagles record". Glasgow Herald. 13 June 1986. p. 30.
  12. ^ "PGA – Gordon Brand Jr". PGA. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  13. ^ "Spain win: Taiwan pip Scots for Outright Second". Glasgow Herald. 19 November 1984. p. 20.
  14. ^ "Gordon J wins battle of Brands after six-hole play-off". Scottish Golf View. 24 August 2008.
  15. ^ McEwan, Michael (1 August 2019). "Former Ryder Cup star Brand Jnr passes away". bunkered. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  16. ^ Huggan, John (1 August 2019). "Gordon Brand Jr., a Scot who played on two European Ryder Cup teams, has died". Golf Digest.
  17. ^ Davison, Phil (16 August 2019). "Gordon Brand Jr: Ryder Cup winner who broke American golfing hearts". The Independent.
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