The Open star Daniel Brown has been caught on video appearing to throw a cigarette butt into the rough during his opening round at Royal Troon. The Englishman was in scintillating form on Thursday and finished the day at the top of the leaderboard after ending six under-par.
Brown had failed to sparkle in the lead-up to The Open and had made just one cut in his last eight tournaments on the DP World Tour.
He qualified for The Open - his first major - at West Lancashire earlier this month but then finished in a tie for 61st at the Scottish Open last week.
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Brown threw the formbook away after teeing off at 4.16pm on Thursday as he shot birdie after birdie in a display of dominance.
And with the television cameras giving the 29-year-old the sort of attention usually reserved for the biggest stars of the game, the player inexplicably let his guard down.
With Brown second on the leaderboard, the cameras returned to focus on him following a replay. And the ace appeared to exhale a big puff of smoke. He then threw what appeared to be a cigarette butt onto the ground, with the footage being shared on Reddit.
Following his opening round of 65, Brown said: “Yeah, amazing, isn't it. I was nervous on the first tee - obviously it being my first major - but I hit a few nice shots early, so I kind of got settled into the round pretty quick.
“I was watching The Open before I went out on TV in the house, and you’re kind of looking at how tough it is. There’ s only a few guys at one under, two under and you obviously know it’s going to be tough.
“Thankfully the wind died a little bit for our back nine, so it got a bit more scorable I think.”
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Brown kept himself in contention to clinch silverware in his second round on Friday but ended with the worst round of any player in the top eight with one over-par.
Ahead of the third day of action, the star is tied in second alongside Justin Rose, with the duo two shots behind Shane Lowry.
“It was always going to be tricky to back up what I did yesterday,” Brown exclaimed on Friday. The conditions didn’t really allow that so it was just very much managing your expectations. I know I’m capable. A lot of people probably didn’t know who I was coming into this week, but I feel good and at home on links golf.”
