Brown wins Portugal Masters for his 1st European Tour title

VILAMOURA, Portugal (AP) — Steven Brown won the Portugal Masters on Sunday to claim his first European Tour title.

The Englishman shot 5-under 66 in the final round to finish one stroke ahead of South African pair Justin Walters (66) and Brandon Stone (70).

Brown made par or better on each of his last 36 holes. He hit three birdies and an eagle on the par-5 12th to move from three shots off the lead before Sunday’s round to the top of the board with 17-under 267 overall.

“You just never know with this game,” the 32-year-old Brown said. “It’s crazy to think how well I’ve played the last month to how bad it was the first two-thirds of the year. I never thought this was going to happen.

“The last few weeks I’ve had a calmness in my head. Even today, I liked the fact that I had to go for it and I wasn’t just trying to have a good result. That’s probably the difference.”