Hamish Brown will be hoping to replicate the success he experienced two years ago when he tees it up at Kaskada Golf Resort on Thursday.
The 27-year-old won what was then the Kaskada Golf Challenge for his maiden HotelPlanner Tour title, which he then followed up with a second win of 2024 at the Hainan Open before graduating to the DP World Tour.
Although Brown’s season on Golf’s Global Tour didn’t quite go to plan, he returns to the site of his first victory with fond memories.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet,” he said. “But that’s how golf goes. You never know what next year looks like when you’re doing well, if you keep going or if you don’t. I like this place so all good.
“The win was massive. I didn’t really expect it that day because I had kind of a whirlwind start, I holed out for my fourth shot on the first and then never really let my foot off the gas. I birdied 15, made a big putt for par on 16 and birdied 17.
“It was a day where I just didn’t really look up, just kept going and all of a sudden I was in the lead after I’d played. It was just a great day all in all.”
It was a final round eight under par 63 that saw Brown to the total of 18 under that ensured a two-stroke victory back in 2024. But the Dane thinks that the course won’t be playing similarly to when he entered the Winner’s Circle.
“It’s a little different than it was two years ago,” he added. “It’s firm, last time I was here it was really soft so it’s going to be a little more difficult to hit the fairways.
“I still think the aggressive playing style out here is going to reward more birdies because it’s not too demanding off the tee, and you’re going to have plenty of chances if you drive it well so I’m going to try and do that and see where it takes me.”
Brown currently sits third in the 2026 Road to Mallorca Rankings, thanks to three runner up finishes, the most recent of which came at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge three weeks ago.
Brown held the lead going into the weekend in France, but fell away, before finding four birdies in his final nine to fall just one shot short of eventual winner Julien Sale.
But the two-time HotelPlanner Tour winner is rolling with the punches of what has been a strange year.
“It’s been a weird year. The Africa events feel like they were last year now, honestly. I didn’t play a tournament for three months after that because of everything happening in the Middle East and I didn’t go to India and all of a sudden its May and you’re playing golf again.
“Looking back, I think it was good that I had three months off even though I maybe wanted to play, just to get myself ready, enjoy life at home and just take it easy. That’s probably helped me a bit this year, not being too hard on myself and not trying to play every single week.
“It’s been a good year. I would have loved to win but the only one I really could change anything on was maybe France, the one in Spain I couldn’t do much more. In France I hit my ball in the hazard on nine on Sunday which ultimately cost me a double bogey, but we can’t change what happened, and I played a good back nine so no hard feelings.”
Brown has found a rhythm to his year this season that has found him in the promising position of third in the Rankings, and he says he isn’t going to change it now.
“I haven’t played too much and I’m not going to change that. I’m not going to play every week, I’ve found out that way actually works really well for me.
“I will play this week then I’ll take two weeks off and then play somewhere after that and we’ll take it from there.”
The Raiffeisenbank Golf Challenge gets under way on Thursday at 7.15am local time, with Hamish Brown teeing off at 1.51pm.
