Gordon Brand Jr
Golfer who helped win the Ryder Cup for Europe – twice
GORDON BRAND JR, who has died suddenly aged 60, was a golfer who played a part in the transformation of the Ryder Cup and won eight titles on the European tour.
By the late 1970s the Ryder Cup, originally contested by teams from the US and
Great Britain, had become dominated by the Americans, but in 1979 Britain became Europe, and when Tony Jacklin came on board as team captain Europe took the upper hand.
In 1987 Brand was at Muirfield Village in Dublin,
Ohio, to help make history when Europe won on American soil for the first time. In the Friday four-ball he partnered the Spaniard, Jose Rivero, to victory over Ben Crenshaw and Scott Simpson, and the following day he won again with Rivero as Europe took a five-point lead into the final day. And though the US staged a Sunday fightback, Brand halved with Hal Sutton as Europe won by 15 points to 13.
On that final day, after Seve Ballesteros had holed the winning putt, Brand was still out on the course in the last pairing of the day.
“We were on the 17th fairway and had to wait for 20 minutes while they were all dancing on the green,” Brand’s caddie Billy Foster recalled. “Eventually we got to the last. Gordon made his par and Hal Sutton rolled his putt 12 feet or so past. Gordon said, ‘Take the half,’ and gave him the putt. I went livid. You want to win don’t you, but it showed his sportsmanship.”
Brand himself recalled: “I remember [Jose Maria] Olazabal dancing on the green after we won. Some people thought he should rein it in a bit, but Jack [Nicklaus, the US team captain] came on to the green and said, ‘Don’t worry lads, don’t worry about the green. I’m going to dig it up on Monday.’ ”
Two years later Europe retained the trophy with a 14-14 draw at The Belfry in Warwickshire, Brand doing his bit, beating Curtis Strange and Paul Azinger in the opening four-balls alongside Sam Torrance.
Gordon Brand was born on August 19 1958 in Kirkcaldy but brought up in Bristol, where his father, Gordon Brand Sr, was a club professional.
He had a flourishing amateur career before turning professional in 1981, and his first European Tour victory came the following year at the Coral Classic in Wales when he beat the mighty Greg Norman by three shots.
In all he played 18 times at the Open Championship, tieing for fifth place in 1992. His only other major appearance was at the US Open in 1994, when he finished in joint 39th place.
In 2008 he joined the Senior Tour, and in his first event, at Slaley Hall in Northumberland, he tied after 72 holes with his near-namesake Gordon J Brand – who had incorporated the “J” to avoid confusion – but lost at the sixth hole of a suddendeath play-off.
He went on to win two senior titles, including the Matrix Jersey Classic at La Moye Gold Club – the venue where in 1996 he had set the course record with a four-eagle round of 62.
With his sense of humour he was a gifted after-dinner speaker, and he also took naturally to broadcasting duties; two weeks before he died he was commentating for the R&A’S live radio service at the Open in Portrush.
Gordon Brand Jr is survived by his wife Sheena.