DANTASTIC

Qualifier Brown fires a brilliant 65 to take shock Open lead from former champion lowry

- NEIL MCLEMAN

QUALIFIER Dan Brown coolly fired a closing-hole birdie to lead the Open on his very first appearance.

Playing in the penultimate group on a day of high scoring, the world No.272 lit up the darkness with a brilliant bogey-free 65 to overtake Shane Lowry at the top of the leaderboard.

Brown, 29, needed a 20-foot putt on the final hole to come through Open qualifying at West Lancs this month to make his first Major.

And before his tied 61st finish at last week's Genesis Scottish Open, he had missed the cut in six of his previous seven events and had withdrawn from the other.

But the Northallerton native benefitted from the calmer later conditions to roll in his sixth birdie at the 18th hole at 9.33pm.