Have you ever fathomed Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler playing rock-paper-scissors with a fan at the ropes in the heat of competition? Of course not. Tiger loathed even eye contact, and Rory and Scottie offer fist bumps occasionally, but most of the great players covet trying to stay in some kind of zone.
Then again, none of them had quite the youthful verve of Blades Brown, nor did they have a chance to embrace the moment while being 18 years old and contending into Sunday of a $9.2 million PGA Tour event.
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In the midst of birdieing his final three holes—the last two coming at a combined 72 feet— to finish a round of four-under-par 68 in the third round of The American Express, Brown strode down to the island 17th green at the PGA West Stadium Course. When a boy not much younger than him approached the rope line and gestured to play Rock-Paper-Scissors, Brown took the bait—and kept with it as they walked through five rounds, before Blades won with a “rock.”
Of course he won. That’s the kind of surreal week the recent high school graduate from Nashville is having in California’s Coachella Valley. In only his 10th PGA Tour start after making his debut here a year ago, Brown backed up his course-record 60 on the Nicklaus Course on Friday with strong round in gusty conditions on the hardest course in the three-venue rotation, and he’ll return at the Stadium on Sunday morning to compete in the final threesome with Scheffler, the World No. 1 who is gunning for his 20th career victory, and past AmEx champion Si Woo Kim.
Kim leads at 22 under after shooting 66 on Saturday at La Quinta Country Club, while Brown and Scheffler (68) are a shot back after Scheffler needed to make a long par putt on the 18th to reach the anchor group.
At stake for Brown is his opportunity to become the second-youngest player with an official win on the PGA Tour, while no one ever has pulled off what he could—lifting a trophy after playing eight consecutive days across two tours. Brown flew to Palm Springs on Wednesday after the final round of the Korn Ferry Tour’s event in the Bahamas, where he tied for 17th.
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“I’m having fun out there,” Brown said. “I’m 18 years old playing on the PGA Tour. How awesome is that? I finished high school about two weeks ago, so it’s nice to have that burden off my back. But I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”
If Brown, who is ranked 485th in the world, is feeling any nerves, he certainly isn’t showing it. He definitely had to practice patience on Pete Dye’s challenging Stadium layout—there wasn’t going to be an eight-under start through seven holes like on Friday on the Nicklaus Course. Brown birdied Nos. 5 and 6 but bogeyed 7 and then parred eight straight holes.
A chip to close range gave him a birdie at the par-5 16th, and then Brown’s putter caught fire. After nearly hitting his tee shot too long into the water at the “Aclatraz” green at 17 and engaging with that kid at the ropes, he rolled in a 25-foot birdie. At 18, Brown piped a 268-yard tee shot into the middle of the fairway and hit his approach to 43 feet. Again, he put a calm and perfect stroke on his ball for birdie. In the round, Brown made 128 feet of putts.
“Hooped two putts coming in, and that was cool,” Brown said with a smile.
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What makes Brown’s performance this week particularly surprising is that after turning pro at 17 years old in late 2024, he has not been a consistent contender in tournaments. He played 14 times on the KFT last season and had two top-10s—though one of those was a T-2 in April’s Veritex Championship, where he tied for second after opening with a 61.
He made his PGA Tour debut as a pro in The AmEx last year and missed the cut. There would be four more missed weekends over another seven starts, with a pair of T-34s as Brown’s best results.
At this point, Brown is still trying to build on all of his experiences.
“I think if I can take every single competitive professional tournament round and learn something from it; you just keep stacking those day after day it’s going to be a really cool story,” Brown said. “So that’s one thing that I tried to do is I try to learn from every round. And yeah, last year was a little unfortunate, but I learned from it. I think that’s what you have to do.”
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Scheffler, 29. has his own strong motivations to win his first AmEx. If he can snatch his 20th victory, the Texan will be the second-youngest to reach the milestone and in the second-fastest time at 151 starts. Woods tops both categories.
Scheffler seemingly could have the lead going into Sunday, given how how many scoring opportnities he gave hiimsel on the Stadium. But down the final stretch alone, he missed a 13-foot birdie putt at 15, an 18-foot eagle attempt at 16 and a 22-footer for birdie at 17.
Scheffler was ultimately fortunate to get into Sunday’s final group after he missed the green from the middle of the fairway. His difficult sidehill chip motored 25 feet past the hole, but Scheffler drained the putt for par.
In his post-round interview, Kim asked with interest if he was playing with Scheffler on Sunday, and at the time it was uncertain as Scheffler finished up. It was clear that Kim, a four-time PGA Touur winner who is ranked 42nd in the world, was eager to get that draw.
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“Hopefully playing with Scottie, and we can have some fun,” Kim said. “Just not thinking about trying to win or trying to finish, just enjoy the round. That’s my goal.”
Kim, 30, became the youngest winner of the Players Championship when he won in 2017, and it would take him another four years for the next victory—a one-shot triumph over Patrick Cantlay in The AmEx. Kim’s last win came in the 2023 Sony Open in Hawaii.
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