Mitchell A. Brown has taken out the 2015 SIFA Samoa Open by two shots after a closing round of 4r-under 68 and a 54 hole total of 12-under 204.

Heading into
the final round, Brown trailed R.J Caracella by one shot and was sharing second
place with Nick Gillespie and Andrew Evans.

The toughest
conditions of the week met players on Saturday and strong winds along with the
standard tropical temperatures made scoring very difficult.

"It was
really tough out there on some holes to gauge the wind direction," said Brown
who is from Bankstown Golf Club in Sydney.

"I did a good
job of keeping the ball in the fairway and made some mid-range putts for birdie
which kept things moving in the right direction."

It was a slow
start for the leading group who were challenged by Queensland’s Warrick Betts
who made the day’s main charge and tied for the lead on his back nine before a
late double bogey on 17 left Betts in an eventual tie for sixth place.

Following a
tournament low round of 9-under 63 on Friday, New Zealand’s Nick Gillespie
could only manage a 1-under 71 on Saturday and ended in a tie for third on 9-under
207.

Caracella
managed to salvage a birdie on the final hole to take outright second place
behind Brown but said, "it was always going to be difficult to catch Brown who
was putting well and striking it very solid."

Local Samoan
amateur Pulou Faaaliga fired a second consecutive round of 4-under 68 to finish
at 9-under the card in a tie for third and the highest placed Samoan player.

Brown
continues what is one of his strongest years as a Professional following recent
success on the Choice Hotels PGA Pro-Am Series in Western Australia and New
South Wales.

"I have spent
a lot of time on the range and working hard on my game to compete in the bigger
events," said Brown who moves into first place on the Choice Hotels National
Order of Merit taking home almost AU$10,000 for the win.

Brown
continues his run in the Pacific region next week, joining Caracella, Gillespie
and many others for the 31^st annual Tahiti International Open which
begins on Thursday.

In the SIFA
Samoa Senior Open it was Richard Backwell who successfully defended his title in
commanding style, winning the title by six strokes ahead of Victorian Michael
Barry who closed with a 5-over 77.

"It’s great
to defend this title and we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to come
to Samoa and compete for these two titles," said Backwell who is one of the
contenders to take out Player of the Year on the E-Z-GO PGA Legends Tour this
year.