Teenager Blades Brown is in for a new life experience this week.
No, not playing a PGA Tour event. He crossed that one off the list when he made the cut and tied for 26th as an amateur at the Myrtle Beach Classic last year.
While Brown will be making his tour debut as a professional at this week’s The American Express, the trip to La Quinta, Calif. is the first ever visit to the desert for the Nashville native.
It’s also his first event played across three golf courses: PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course and Nicklaus Tournament Course along with the La Quinta Country Club.
“That’s a lot of golf course knowledge that you need to know. So got here four days ago, and as I was flying in I saw the golf courses and pickleball courts and I’m like, ‘This is my place right here,’ Brown said on Tuesday. “So, it was awesome. All three golf courses are in phenomenal shape.
“I was telling my coach, Graham Benson, I said, ‘Man, if we could just copy and paste all three of these golf courses back in Nashville, Tennessee’ — which it’s 28 degrees and snowing there right now — but I’m so excited to be able to play these pure golf courses this week.”
The 17-year-old Brown is one of the most intriguing stories at the first event in the mainland United States of 2025.
The son of former WNBA player Rhonda Brown, whose maiden name is “Blades,” Blades Brown took up golf at eight years old while playing with his father at Richland Country Club in Nashville.
He went on to put together a decorated amateur career, becoming the youngest co-medalist in U.S. Amateur history at 16 — breaking a 103-year-old record held by Bobby Jones.
Brown also was medalist at the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur, joining Tiger Woods and Bobby Clampett as the only players in history to win medalist honors at both prestigious amateur events.
Recruited by numerous top college programs after winning three consecutive individual state high school championships, Brown announced last month that he would instead turn professional.
“There were a lot of trade-offs in every decision that we make, and for me turning professional was a very difficult decision, but it was the best decision that I believe was for me,” he said. “When someone comes up to you and says, ‘Hey, do you want to play on the PGA Tour?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, a hundred percent, let’s do it.’
“It was a very difficult decision, but I believe I made the right decision.”
His professional journey begins when he tees off at La Quinta at 10:42 a.m. on Thursday alongside playing partner and fellow tour rookie Isaiah Salinda.
“I’m so pumped,” Brown said. “When I was playing Myrtle Beach Classic for my first event I cannot put into words how I was feeling on that first tee, and ever since then I’ve been itching to get back out there. So, I’m really pumped to be able to play The American Express this week.”
Brown doesn’t have to look far for inspiration.
Teeing off two hours earlier on the same course Thursday is defending champion Nick Dunlap, who last year became the first amateur to win on tour since Phil Mickelson in 1991. Dunlap turned pro shortly thereafter, and went on to claim his maiden win as a PGA Tour member at the Barracuda Championship.
“Nick has been a huge inspiration for me ever since, because I was watching that live on TV when he made that 6-footer on the 18th green (to win the AmEx), and it just gave me so much inspiration to know that somebody else similar to my age is able to do that,” Brown said. “And then it raises the question, ‘What if I can do that?'”
Instead of competing against players his age in college somewhere this week, Brown will be teeing it up against the likes of former World No. 1 Justin Thomas and other major champions, including Wyndham Clark.
“It was a decision that my family and I didn’t take lightly. There’s so many great organizations, colleges, that are around, like Alabama, Tennessee, I mean, I could go on for forever,” he said.
Ultimately, Brown said his family let him make the final decision. He expects there to be “hills and valleys,” and he will still need to earn his PGA Tour card to get into events beyond sponsor exemptions.
“I wanted to go to college, but it was the best decision for me to go on the PGA Tour because I want to get better,” he said. “I feel like you’re put in a position out here where you have to get better. Playing against people such as Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, I mean you learn from the best. I feel like that’s life, you learn each and every day.
“I’m probably not going to be going to school in college, but I am going to be going to school on the PGA Tour, so that sounds pretty good to me.”
–Field Level Media