Brown irked by penalties at U.S. Amateur tourney

What should have been a memorable first trip for Michael Brown to the U.S. Amateur, the pinnacle for those who play golf not for the money but for the love of the game, became a nightmare.

Brown, of Cheltenham, and the other two members of his group each were assessed a 3-stroke penalty for slow play at the end of their opening round of medal competition Monday at the Home Course in Dupont, Wash.

The penalty turned a solid even-par 72 into a 75 and dropped Brown from a tie for 28th to a tie for 99th place after the opening 18. Brown shot an 83 Tuesday at Chambers Bay, the site for match play, and finished in a tie for 212th as the field was cut to the low 64.

"I was in a daze, in shock," the 37-year-old Brown said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "At a tournament like this where the margin is so thin, a three-stroke penalty is almost a disqualification. A difference of one shot can mean moving 30 spots, so that's tough."

Brown, the 2010 Philadelphia Open champion who was playing in his fourth U.S. Golf Association championship, said he felt the penalty was "unjustified."

"There were other situations where people took longer to play their rounds and weren't penalized," he said.

Rounds took well over five hours at Chambers Bay, which at 7,742 yards is the longest course in USGA championship history, even though officials mandated a time of 4 hours, 48 minutes to play. At the 7,309-yard Home Course, the directive was 4:32; Brown said his group finished in about five hours.

A total of 21 penalty strokes for slow play were assessed during the first round.

Brown said the group received its first warning after the ninth hole, "so we put it into high gear."

"Basically, we were playing out of turn – whoever was ready to hit, hit," he said. "We weren't going through our pre-shot routines. We were worried. We didn't want to take any chances considering the importance of the event."

Still, the trio got another warning at the next checkpoint at No. 13. When they reached the scoring area, two USGA officials reviewed pace of play with them, and the news wasn't good.

"They said they saw no evidence that we were trying to improve our position," Brown said. "We took exception to that. We were running around the back nine. The group behind us was nowhere to be seen. They gave us a chance to talk but they were not satisfied. They met, came back and said they were assessing a three-stroke penalty - one stroke at 13, two strokes at 18."