Blades Brown, currently ranked No. 2 in the Junior Golf Hub Rankings (Hub) and 176th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR), is playing for the first time on the PGA Tour in the new 2024 event, the Myrtle Beach Classic. The tournament is set to take place on May 9-12 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Brown will be the youngest in the field at just 16 years old.
Blades Brown is no stranger to breaking records though. Last year, he broke a 103 year old record previously held by Bobby Jones as the youngest stroke play co-medalist in U.S. Amateur history. 2023 was a big year for the Brentwood Academy sophomore as Brown was also named both the 2023 Tennessee Boy’s Junior and Men’s Player of the Year- the first to ever do so. That same year, he won the 2023 Wyndham Invitational, 2023 AJGA Junior, and 2023 Huntsville.org Junior Championship. Other accomplishments of Brown’s include winning back-to-back AJGA titles, finishing top 10 in prestigious amateur events this year, such as the Jones Cup and the Terra Cotta Invitational, and winning last year’s Tennessee Junior by 12 strokes.
The Tennessee native took to Instagram to share his excitement for the upcoming tournament and his appreciation for all the help along the way in a post that reads, “Myrtle Beach soon. Excited, honored, blessed to announce that I will be making my @pgatour debut next week in the @myrtlebeachcl. Thank you to everyone who has made it possible for me to compete at the highest stage” (via Instagram).
With Brown now playing at Myrtle Beach, he becomes the second sixteen year old to compete on tour for the second straight week. England’s Kris Kim debuted at THE CJ CUP on Thursday and did so stylishly with an opening round 3 under 68 that included a chip-in eagle on the final hole. Brown’s first appearance on tour also comes on the heels of Miles Russell’s T20 finish at the Korn Ferry Tour’s LECOM Suncoast Classic on April 21st. Russell’s finish makes him the youngest player on record to finish in the top 25 of a PGA Tour sanctioned event (since 1983). Like Russell, Blades Brown has also signed a multi-year NIL contract with Transcend Capital Advisors, which for Brown took place in March of this year.
The Myrtle Beach Classic will be held at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, with a $4 million purse and 132 players in the field. The winner will receive $720,000, along with 300 FedEx Cup points and secure PGA status until 2026. Blades Brown has already competed in Myrtle Beach where he won the 2023 Elite Invitational. With his return to South Carolina next week, Brown has the opportunity to add another achievement to his already stacked resume.
Photo Credit: AJGA
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