Man Of Many Talents

Ken Brown tells us how he made the seamless transition from the fairways to the television studio

- Jeremy Ellwood

Ken Brown – he of ‘Ken on the Course’ fame – has been playing out his amusing little cameos to highlight the challenges and intricacies of the world’s greatest golf holes for so long now that it’s easy to forget he once trod those same fairways and greens himself as a fine player.

Indeed, the now 60-year-old Scot wasn’t even out of his teens when he played his maiden full season on tour in 1976, before making the first of five Ryder Cup appearances the very next year. Over the following decade and a bit, he enjoyed considerable success not only in Europe, where he won four times, but also out in America on the PGA Tour. He played there for six years from 1984 to 1989, winning once and racking up a decent number of top tens long before it was fashionable, or indeed easy, for Europeans to ply their trade out in the States.

Then it was over all too soon, with Brown making his final European Tour appearance at the 1993 Carrolls Irish Open, the event that had given him his first victory 15 years earlier. This time, he shot 79, 79 to finish T139th, and that was that. Brown hung up his clubs, and looked for something else to while away the hours at the modest age of 36.

Here, we look back with Ken on his early years in game, his American adventure, his early retirement and how his second career as a TV pundit came about…

How did your career in golf start?

When I left school, first of all I was a green keeper for six months at my home club of Harpenden Common – I worked in the morning and golfed in the afternoon. After six months, there was a job advertised at Verulam Golf Club for an assistant professional and I thought, “Let’s go for it!” I got the job at £10 per week in 1974, and just did what an assistant club pro does.

How did you get on tour so quickly?