Blades Brown, 16, makes PGA Tour debut in style at Myrtle Beach Classic
Blades Brown, only a sophomore in high school, is playing among the pros this week at the Myrtle Beach Classic.
The future is already here.
For the second straight week, a teenager has made their PGA Tour debut.
Like 16-year-old Kris Kim at last week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson, Blades Brown is teeing up at this week’s Myrtle Beach Classic.
Brown, who became the youngest stroke-play medalist in U.S. Amateur history last year, opened with a 1-over 72 on Thursday.
“Oh, my goodness, it was so much fun,” Brown said after his round.
“This course has some teeth to it. I’m not 100 percent used to that yet, but I feel like the experience I’m getting this week is—like you can’t pay for this.”
The Dunes Golf and Beach Club is hosting this Opposite Field event, held the same week as the Wells Fargo Championship, the Signature Event that now features an elite 68-player field thanks to Hideki Matsuyama’s withdrawal.
That should not take away from the talent within the Myrtle Beach field, which includes Ryder Cup star Robert MacIntyre, Joel Dahmen, and Beau Hossler, who leads at 7-under after round one.
“I was so pumped to hear that I was playing in a PGA Tour event,” Brown added.
“The nerves didn’t really set in until I got here. I started seeing all the grandstands and everything. But then I started to get settled in, hit a few balls, muscle memory started to take over, and I can’t thank the Myrtle Beach Classic for giving me this opportunity.”
Brown admitted to having some nerves over the first couple of holes, and who could blame him? He has never competed on a stage like this before.
“First tee, I was shaking a little bit, but I decided to—instead of thinking about it as nervousness, think about it as excitement,” Brown said.
“But yeah, it was a lot of fun... I’d say about hole three or so is when I got going.”
The 16-year-old opened with five straight pars before sticking it to nine feet on the par-3 6th, where he made his first birdie. But his first PGA Tour round was defined by a mix of birdies and bogies, teetering on the brink of par throughout the round.
In all, he made five birdies to six bogies—two of which came on the 17th and 18th holes, a disappointing finish to a dream-fulfilling day.
“This course is hard,” Brown assessed.
“I [need to] tighten it up around the edges, but overall, I feel solid about my game. It’s really close, but I’m excited for [Friday’s second round].”
He will need to go low to follow Kim’s lead and become the second teenager in as many weeks to make a cut on the PGA Tour. But Brown has an idea of what he needs to do on Friday.
“Just course management, stuff like that,” Brown added.
“My job is just to hit the ball straight, and you can’t learn enough from hanging around these guys. Smack talk, as well. That’s there, too. But just where to hit it off the tee and where to hit it on the greens... I just need to tighten up on a few things, but I feel like this is where I belong.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.