Blades Brown is four months removed from graduating high school and already well-schooled in golf axioms.
“Good golf takes care of everything,” Brown said.
There has been plenty of good golf from the Tennessee native who turned 19 during the first round of The CJ Cup Byron Nelson last week. He celebrated with a 66 at TPC Craig Ranch, followed with rounds of 68-65-67 and tied for 14th.
It was his fourth top 20 in seven starts on the PGA Tour, and his decision to skip college and turn pro while still in his junior year is starting to make more sense.
Golf at the highest level seems to be getting younger by the minute. Brown’s route was similar to Akshay Bhatia, who turned pro when he was 17 and won on the Korn Ferry Tour just 12 days shy of his 20th birthday. He won his first PGA Tour title a year later and now is No. 26 in the world.
Brown has yet to win as a pro. What stands out are the chances he keep giving himself.
He played in the final group with Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim at The American Express. He had a one-shot lead on the back nine of the Puerto Rico Open. Both times, one errant shot led to a big number and ended his hopes. Brown shared the 54-hole lead on the Korn Ferry Tour until a pair of three-putt bogeys late in the final round and finished third.
Good golf is taking him places. He already has earned $751,728 from his seven PGA Tour starts, and $940,357 when counting money from his eight Korn Ferry Tour events.
He was asked if his results vindicate his decision to turn pro in high school and he quickly replied, “Yeah, absolutely.”
“I know my route to the PGA Tour is a very uncommon route,” Brown said. “It’s mainly because of my parents. They’ve been my biggest supporters. They’ve sacrificed so much, especially my dad. … It’s been pretty cool, and I’m really happy with the decision I made to turn pro.”
His route is far from complete, and Brown now has options.
His tie for 14th at the Byron Nelson earned him enough points to surpass No. 150 in the FedEx Cup last year, earning him special temporary membership. That means Brown can take unlimited sponsor exemptions the rest of the year and is no longer restricted to a limit of 12 tournaments for the season.
Eight tournaments — two of them opposite-field events — remain that can offer him exemptions the rest of the PGA Tour regular season. Then it’s either six more Korn Ferry Tour events, or the FedEx Cup Fall. Brown would need the equivalent of 70th in last year’s FedEx Cup Fall standings to get a full PGA Tour card for 2027, and he’s 562 points away from there.
That would require some seriously good golf.
He also is No. 13 in points on the Korn Ferry Tour, and the top 20 earn a tour card for next year.
What to do? The first stop is Raleigh, North Carolina, this week for the next Korn Ferry Tour stop. Another one follows in South Carolina. That would seem to be the prudent path, and Brown figures the experience already has been invaluable.
“The Korn Ferry Tour is awesome,” he said. “The cool thing that I think it’s done is it’s taught me to go low. I can’t thank the Korn Ferry Tour enough for teaching me those valuable lessons because everybody out on the PGA Tour, they can go low.”
He got a glimpse of that at The American Express when he was one shot behind Kim and one shot ahead of Scheffler going to the tee at par-3 fourth. Five holes later, Brown was five shots behind Scheffler as the world No. 1 put it in overdrive.
The latest example came Sunday. Brown was never in the mix as he was at PGA West, but every glance at the leaderboard showed Wyndham Clark piling up birdies until he shot 60 to win at 30-under par. Kim had a two-shot lead, shot 65 and lost by three. Tough game.
“Look at Wyndham. Look at Scottie. Look at Si Woo — 27 under is no joke,” Brown said.
Brown is on the fast track. The Korn Ferry Tour is a tedious track.
Jordan Spieth faced a similar situation, with far different circumstances. It was early in 2013 and the 19-year-old Texan was coming off a pair of top 10s on the Korn Ferry Tour. He had an exemption to the Puerto Rico Open. Part of him wanted to stay on the tedious track. Another part of him wanted to honor his commitment.
He chose Puerto Rico and tied for second to get into the next PGA Tour stop, tied for seventh to get special temporary membership, and four months later won the John Deere Classic. By the end of the season, he was playing alongside Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker in the Presidents Cup.
That’s the temptation. One shot, one moment can change everything in a hurry.
Brown concedes to being farther along than he imagined. He has goals, but mostly he just plays and “it just kind of happens.”
He’s not sure where he’s going from here, but he’s going somewhere. Good golf does that.
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On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
