A year ago at the American Express, Nick Dunlap improbably became the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson in 1991.
Blades Brown is making his professional debut this week and therefore can’t follow suit. However, at 17 years old, he could become the youngest winner on Tour.
“Nick has been a huge inspiration for me ever since,” Brown said Tuesday at La Quinta, “because I was watching that live on TV when he made that 6-footer on the 18th green, and it just gave me so much inspiration to know that somebody else similar to my age is able to do that. And then it raises the question, what if I can do that?”
The Nashville, Tenn., native is taking an unorthodox path to the PGA Tour. He was a top-ranked junior player in the country and became the third player, along with Tiger Woods and Bobby Clampett, to claim medalist honors at both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Amateur. Last year, Brown made his Tour debut as an amateur at the Myrtle Beach Classic and finished T26.
Despite being recruited by major colleges, Brown decided he couldn’t pass up a chance to turn professional, similar to what Akshay Bhatia and Joaquin Niemann did years ago.
“To be able to know that I could compete on the PGA Tour,” Brown said of his start in Myrtle Beach, “and that's something I love to do, I love to compete. It's been a dream of mine for forever to be able to play on the PGA Tour, and when that decision came across on the table, I said, ‘you know, Let’s not make the decision just yet, but let’s keep it in the back of our heads. Then it was just, 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. And was it a decision that I wanted to go to college, yeah, I wanted to go to college, but it was the best decision for me to go on the PGA Tour because, one, I want to get better.”
The best way to do that? Watch the game’s top players up close.
“Playing against people such as Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, I mean you learn from the best,” Brown said. “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.”
However, Brown, whose mother is Rhonda Blades Brown, the first pick in the 1998 WNBA draft, knows that success might not come immediately.
“This is going to be a process,” he said, “and processes there are hills and valleys. And I’m lucky enough to where I have an awesome team around me supporting me, and I’m just super excited to go through this journey along with them. Whatever happens is going to happen.”
So what are the teenager’s expectations this week?
“I’m just thankful and grateful,” he said. “To be here competing as a 17-year-old is awesome. Like, that has been a goal of mine forever. To be able to play—Pat McCabe, the tournament director, he’s been awesome. When I first got here, he said, ‘Hey, let me know what you need, send me a text.’ And, I mean, it's hard to not have fun playing on the PGA Tour.”
Maybe, the week will end with Brown following Dunlap’s victory with one of his own. Dunlap, though, has some advice for the new kid on the block: be patient.
“I approached it as, O.K., this is going to be a learning year, it's a big jump,” the 21-year-old said, “and I knew that, I knew there was a difference between playing against college players and the best players in the world. I knew I needed to get better in certain parts of my game and seeing golf courses for the first time's different, you don't do that in junior golf and amateur golf.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 17-Year-Old Phenom Making Pro Debut at American Express After Bypassing College .
