LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Cullan Brown loved to share the game of golf with young people.
So it's an honor, his family said, to have the Junior Barbasol Championship trophy named after him.
On Thursday, the Cullan Brown Trophy was awarded to Preston Summerhays, the first winner of the tournament.
"Knowing that his life left an impression on someone else that was big enough to want to name a trophy in his honor, it was pretty phenomenal," said Emily Brown, Cullan's mother.
Brown, a member of the men's golf team at the University of Kentucky, died of bone cancer last summer. He was 20-years-old.
"Some days are more tough than others," Emily Brown said. "This day is kind of tough too but we know that he would want us to be here and continue to share the things that he loved."
Brown played in the 2019 PGA Tour's Barbasol Championship in Lexington, an experience his mother said was a dream come true.
"It was probably the most excited I'd ever seen him at a tournament," she said. "Cullan was always laid back. He was always very comfortable on a golf course. And he was comfortable at the Barbasol but he was excited."
His sister, Cathryn Brown, remembers how her love for the game grew with the encouragement of her brother.
"I grew up watching Cullan play," she said. "It was really fun. I was the kid that laid on the golf cart and kind of fell asleep while he played."
Now this trophy will allow other young golfers to learn Cullan's story, the said.
"He was always about the younger kids, wanting to encourage them to play and to have them become better players," Emily Brown said.
