At some point, every professional golfer loses his or her youthful exuberance, that joie de vivre that makes golf so fun, so easy, but that fades seemingly with each shot. While most guys in this 156-man American Express field are attempting some method or another to rediscover that child-like joy and play like the kid they once knew, Blades Brown doesn’t have to try.
At 18 years old, Brown strikes the ball without fear.
The son of an WNBA player, he rolls his rock like he’s putting up jump-shots in an empty gym.
He walks with a pep in his step and a big smile, playing to the crowd every chance he gets. Blades-mania is infectious!
But just the thought of battling the best player in the world, Scottie Scheffler, for one’s first PGA Tour victory should be enough to dilate any teen’s pupils. And yet, Brown appears unfazed, even breaking from Saturday’s third round for a quick game of rock, paper, scissors with a high-schooler standing along the gallery ropes. Brown, in high school himself until wrapping up English and economics exams earlier this month, finally threw rock after a few draws, defeating his opponent’s scissors, the proceeded to hoop a 25-footer for birdie on the famed par-3 17th hole at PGA West’s Stadium Course. When told his birdie unlocked discounted beers at the nearby Michelob Ultra tent, Brown playfully responded, “No way? I’ll make sure to go get some bottled water, and I’ll have my bottled water then.”
Brown added a 44-foot birdie make at the last to cap an unusually gusty day with three straight circles and card a 4-under 68 that puts him on the brink of becoming the second-youngest PGA Tour winner ever. Brown will enter Sunday in the final threesome, tied with Scheffler at 21 under and only a shot back of leader Si Woo Kim.
“It was surreal,” Brown said of his finishing fireworks, which came a day after he nearly broke 60. “That’s what you practice for – late nights that you’re going out to putt and pretending that you have a putt to win the Masters. That right there is what it’s all about.”
Rory McIlroy hit dream putts like that decades ago as a kid at Holywood Golf Club in Northern Ireland.
For Brown, that was basically just last week.
After all, Brown is less than two years removed from competing on the AJGA circuit. But with credentials like his, it’s no wonder Brown’s career trajectory has been expedited. In 2023, Brown, at just 16 years old, became the youngest medalist or co-medalist in U.S. Amateur history by two years over Bobby Jones. The following summer, he medaled at the 2024 U.S. Junior, too, to put himself on a list with only Tiger Woods and Bobby Clampett as players to medal in both USGA championships. As the top-ranked recruit in the Class of 2026, he fielded million-dollar offers from several colleges, only to turn pro in time to debut at last year’s American Express. And despite not having any status to begin with, Brown qualified for the Korn Ferry Tour Championship and locked up his KFT card for this season.
Securing a full-time job was one of Brown’s only goals last year. Another was gleaning something productive, anything, from each round. As Brown reiterated Saturday: “You just keep stacking those, day after day, it’s going to be a really cool story.”
Like the one developing right now? Brown’s crazy week actually began in the Bahamas. He tied for 19th at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Great Abaco Golf Classic, which wrapped up Wednesday afternoon. By virtue of finishing top 50 in his PGA Tour debut two years ago in Myrtle Beach, Brown received a five-hour credit with OneFlight, a private charter company, which he cashed in to traverse the 2,300 miles between Abaco and Palm Springs and make his Thursday-morning tee time on a sponsor exemption.
T.J. Vogel did something similar a few years back, only he missed the AmEx cut, so when Brown tees of Sunday afternoon, he’s believed to be the first player in the modern era to log eight Tour-sanctioned rounds in as many days – not that you could tell. Brown posted just one bogey in challenging conditions on the Stadium, by far the toughest in the AmEx’s three-course rota. He also drained another long putt earlier in his round, from about 25 feet at the par-3 sixth.
“That to me was a lot of fun,” Brown said afterward. “I love environments like that, especially 17, there’s so many people around, it gets your adrenaline up.”
With energy to spare, Brown, who often plays pickleball and shoots hoops during tournaments weeks, wanted to go out to dinner on Friday night following his second-round 60. Instead, Brown’s instructor, Justin Parsons, talked him into ordering in.
“I almost ate the whole pizza,” Brown said, unashamed.
Smartly, he planned to go take a nap after Saturday’s round.
Meanwhile, Scheffler, making his first start of the year, tallied six birdies to equal Brown’s 68. He then fielded five questions from reporters Saturday, though he was not asked about the prospects of going up against Brown, who is 11 years younger. Scheffler surely isn’t worried, about Brown or anybody; he’s collected 14 worldwide titles in the past two years, and according to stats guru Justin Ray, he’s won on nine straight occasions in which he entered a final round either a shot back or tied for the lead.
But Scheffler likely also knows the advantages of playing with that boyhood freedom, and though it’s been 95 years since Charles Kocsis won the Michigan Open at 18 years, 6 months and 9 days old, Brown won’t have to rewind nearly that far, just two years, to see what Nick Dunlap did on this very property as a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Alabama.
“I honestly think that he thinks that he’s ready to win golf tournaments when he tees them up,” Parsons said. “He’s got a great, positive attitude, a great, positive energy. He loves the challenge. It’s so refreshing.”
Ah, that joy; Blades has it in spades.
Just don’t mistake him for being completely naïve.
“Well, I have a long way to go,” Brown said. “These guys out here have been playing for so many years, and I’m just getting started. But no, I’ve got another shot at it tomorrow, another 18 holes, and we’re going to see what we can do…
“This will be my eighth consecutive round professionally, and that’s what I love. I love to play golf.”