Blades Brown has never been one to set small golf goals for himself.
The Brentwood Academy sophomore always said he wanted to play in a PGA Tour event before his 17th birthday. He’ll do that this week at 16 years old, competing in the Myrtle Beach Classic.
Brown, a three-time TSSAA boys golf individual state champion and the top-ranked golfer in the Class of 2026, will make his PGA Tour debut in South Carolina on a sponsor exemption.
The Myrtle Beach Classic is a new PGA Tour event being played alongside the Tour’s main tournament this week, the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“For this to be a reality is absurd,” Brown said. “But I’m just treating it like any tournament. It’s a PGA Tour event, yeah, and not many 16-year-olds can say (they’ve played in one.) But I’m just going into the event trusting my game and overall trying to have some fun as well.”
Notable names in the Myrtle Beach Classic include former Vanderbilt and Montgomery Bell Academy star Brandt Snedeker, a nine-time PGA Tour winner, plus Billy Horschel, Beau Hossler, Daniel Berger and Kevin Kisner.
Brown is ranked No. 4 in the AJGA rankings and No. 176 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. He made national headlines in August when he broke Bobby Jones’ record as the youngest medalist in U.S. Amateur history, tying for first place in the tournament’s stroke play portion. Brown was eliminated in the match play portion in the Round of 32.
He joins pro golf’s recent trend of teenage phenoms playing PGA Tour sponsored events. England’s Kris Kim, 16, debuted at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson last week. Miles Russell, 15, tied for 20th at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Lecom Suncoast Classic last month.
Brown and Russell talked before the tournament about what professional competition is like.
The course conditions at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club are windy, Brown said, but the soft greens might offer more scoring opportunities.
“I think a solid goal would be to make the cut. I think that would be really cool, to be able to compete on the weekend,” he said.
Brown isn’t nervous and neither is his dad.
“There’s no expectations on Blades,” said Parke Brown, who is feeling much improved after finishing chemotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia last summer. “His game is so solid. I don’t worry about him. I know he’ll do well. Just being here and competing is a victory.”
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