As coach to some of the brightest young players, Gordon Brand Jnr always has one eye on the future but the former Ryder Cup player is also carefully plotting his own success on the European Senior Tour.
The Scot enjoyed a superbly consistent 2010 campaign, capturing his maiden Senior Tour in the Matrix Jersey Classic and recording five other top five finishes to end the season fourth on the Order of Merit.
Brand Jnr also coaches the England Under 16 team, as well as the Gloucester and Somerset county boys, and while he feels the golfing future is in safe hands with the emerging generation, he is also eager to build on his own performances on the course.
His decision not to travel long haul anymore excluded the 52 year old from opening trio of events on the 2011 Senior Tour schedule – in Australia, Japan and Mauritius – but Brand Jnr remains hopeful of competing at the top end of the Order of Merit this season.
“The target is to win again but I’m almost biting the hand that feeds me with the tournaments I miss,” he said.
“It is a big ask to finish any higher than I did in 2010, even one place. I’m playing a third less events than everyone else. I have to put the Order of Merit out of my head unless I come out and really dominate it. I want to enjoy my golf and try to get up there and see how good or bad I am. I’ve set my stall out with my schedule and I’m quite happy with it.
“Last year was a good season and I enjoyed it. It was nice to have the win. I had a couple of other good chances but over the year I’ve played fairly solid and had a lot of top tens.
“I played some of my best golf – certainly for the year – in Jersey to win. I really had the putter going. Anytime you win is special, especially as a professional golfer.
“It wouldn’t have been such a good year without the win – that was the icing on the cake. There was an anticipation that I should win (on the Senior Tour) so it was nice to do it. It was only my second tournament of the year so that was a lovely way to set up the rest of the year.”
An eight time champion on The European Tour and part of the European Ryder Cup Team in 1987 and 1989, Brand Jnr is one of a select group of players to make more than 500 European Tour appearances.
He joined the Senior Tour in 2008 and lost an epic six hole play-off to his namesake Gordon J Brand on his debut in The De Vere Collection PGA Seniors Championship.
In addition to his playing accomplishments, Brand Jnr has also forged a burgeoning career in the media, as an on-course commentator, as well as continuing to nurture new talent near his home in Bristol, England.
“Commentating is a nice way of being involved in golf, like my teaching, without hitting a ball,” he said. “I also get the opportunity to watch some of the best in the world and pick up the odd tip here or there.
“The teaching is also going well. I enjoy passing on the information. We’ve got one you guy coming through called Chris Lloyd who looks very good. He’s not quite Matteo Manassero’s standards, as Manassero has obviously won on the main Tour, but Chris is 18 and certainly in the next few years he is a name to look out for. But if you watch any of the England boys and even some of the county boys, they’ve all got a real talent. It’s really for them what they do with that.
“That’s where the fall-down comes. They almost feel it is their right to wake up and shoot 65 every day. It’s the effort that has to go into that. We try to get them to understand how much work is involved. You have to treat like a job, even though it is your hobby that has turned into a job.”
