Blades Brown catches fire in the second round of American Express
17 Jan 2025
by Sean Melia of AmateurGolf.com
see also: Blades Brown Rankings
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Blades Brown will play in the American Express (Tracy Wilcox).
Something about the American Express brings out the best in amateur golfers.
A year after Nick Dunlap won the event as an amateur, Blades Brown is currently 8-under through 15 holes of his second round and has jumped all the way to T38. He birdied holes No. 12 to 17 (he started on No. 10) of the Nicklaus Tournament Course.
He got to 9-under overall, but a bogey on the final hole saw him fall to 8-under and T40 heading into the third round. According to DataGolf, he has a 42.2 percent chance to make the cut as he heads to the Pete Dye Stadium Course on Saturday.
FIRST ROUND RECAP
Blades Brown, the 17-year-old phenom who recently turned pro, shot an even par round in the opening round of the American Express. Brown played La Quinta Country Club first and still has the Pete Dye Stadium Course and Nicklaus Tournament Course left to play.
There will be a cut after three rounds, but Brown must go low in both rounds since he is currently T116.
He started slow, bogeying his second hole and double-bogeying the third hole, but he birdied holes No. 4, 5, and 6 to get back to even and made 12 pars the rest of the round.
PREVIEW
A month after announcing his decision to turn pro, 17-year-old Blades Brown will make his debut as a professional golfer this week at the American Express.
It’s not an event that’s close to home. Brown is from Tennessee and was named The Tennessean’s High School Sportsperson of the Year last year. Brown's management team, SportFive, runs the American Express.
The new professional made his mark as an amateur. In 2023, he became the youngest medalist in U.S. Amateur history at 16, breaking Bobby Jones' 103-year-old record. Incredibly, Brown was nearly two years younger than Jones, who was 18 when he set the record in 1920. Brown shot a course-record 64 at Colorado Golf Club en route to that accomplishment.
A year later, he was the medalist in the U.S. Junior Amateur. Joining Tiger Woods and Bobby Clampett as the only golfer to earn medalist honors in both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Amateur. To have your name in the record books with Bobby Clampett, Bobby Jones, and Tiger Woods is a good harbinger.
While Brown never broke through to win a USGA event or a major amateur event, he took home three AJGA events, won the Tennessee Jr. by a whopping 12 shots, and made the cut in the only PGA Tour event he played in as an amateur in the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic. He also recorded a runner-up finish in the U.S. Four-Ball with Jackson Herrington, along with seven other top-ten finishes in events like the Jones Cup in 2024 (5th place), the Junior Players Championship (2nd), and the Western Amateur (9th).
Following his first round at the TPC Myrtle Beach, Brown said, "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."
Over this PGA Tour season, Brown will likely gain more experience because SportFive runs more than just the AmEx; it is likely Brown will tee it up in the Puerto Rico Open, Myrtle Beach Classic, and ISCO Championship. The PGA Tour allows seven sponsor exemptions for the year. This gives Brown a good opportunity to gain some momentum. Any top-ten finishes will also grant him a spot in the following week's event. This is how Luke Clanton played in extra PGA Tour events last summer.
Brown will tee off in the final group on Thursday at 1:42 pm at La Quinta with Isaiah Salinda.