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Dan Brown gives up PGA TOUR season to rebuild in Europe
The Englishman, who took the last PGA TOUR card from the 2025 Race to Dubai, says injury and health problems mean he will not return to America this year and will play out 2026 on the DP World Tour.
Dan Brown has ended his first PGA TOUR season early. Brown, 31, announced on Monday that he will not go back to America for the rest of 2026, citing health and injury problems, and will play the remainder of the year on the DP World Tour.
In a statement on Instagram, reported by Golf Monthly and Golfmagic, Brown said he did not feel “in the right place mentally and physically” to see the season out as he had hoped, and described Europe as a place where he feels comfortable.
Brown finished 17th in the 2025 Race to Dubai, which initially left him 11th among the non-exempt players chasing the ten PGA TOUR cards on offer, just one spot short. When Laurie Canter gave up his card after joining LIV Golf, Brown moved up to claim the final one, Golf Monthly reported at the time. That year he had won the BMW International Open in Munich in July and added a runner-up finish at the Open de España and top-10s at the British Masters and the Irish Open.
Golf Monthly reports that, after debuting at the Sony Open in January, Brown missed the cut in five of seven PGA TOUR starts, with his best weekend finishes a T30 and a T40, leaving him well outside the FedExCup top 100.
Away from the PGA TOUR he was T18 at the Open in July and T16 at the Nexo Championship in August. Since then he has had a persistent wrist problem. Golfmagic reports that he withdrew from both the British Masters and the BMW PGA Championship, and considered but decided against an injection so that he could play in the Irish Open.
Golfmagic reports that his BMW International Open victory gives him a DP World Tour exemption through the end of 2027, and that he plans to return at this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Outside the top 100 in the FedExCup, he is not currently on course to keep full status for 2027, and by stepping away from the FedExCup Fall he gives up the chance to change that.
We think he has made the right call: chasing points in America with a wrist injury, and by his own account mentally drained, risked making things worse. As a two-time DP World Tour winner exempt through 2027, he can try again for a card through the Race to Dubai.
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