[Photo: Mike Mulholland]
There is only one thing missing from 19-year-old Blades Brown’s impressive combined campaigns on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour: a win.
That could very well change on Monday morning (Australian time) on the Korn Ferry’s biggest stage after Brown shot a 10-under-par 61 in the second round of the KFT’s Tour Championship to take a one-shot lead. Brown is at 13-under and just ahead of Austin Hitt, who scored 62 on day two at The Federal Club in Glen Allen, Virginia.
Brown has recorded 10 top-20 finishes across the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour and has notched three top-3 finishes: third in the big tour’s Puerto Rico Open; and KFT results of third in the Club Car Championship and runner-up in the Tulum Championship at PGA Riviera Maya.
Easily his most memorable start came in January, when Brown shot a second-round 60 in the American Express tournament and got into Sunday’s final group with Scottie Scheffler. Showing understandable nerves, Brown shot 74 to tie for 18th while the world No.1 ran away with the victory.
Four months later, when Brown finished T-14 in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, he earned Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour, though saw the KFT has probably the best way to earn his card.
In all, Brown has played in a combined 29 events this year between the two circuits, and he’s been a force on the KFT with five top-10s. He’s contended on the weekend numerous times but going low in final rounds has been an issue. His average Sunday score is 69.40, which is 78th on the KFT.
Standing 14th on the points list among the top 20 who will earn their PGA Tour cards, Brown went into the Tour Championship in a comfortable spot. It could get markedly better with a projection to climb up to No.4 with a win. Either way, Brown will become the youngest player ever to earn his card through the KFT. At 19 years, four months and 20 days, he’s seven months younger than when Australia’s Jason Day did it in 2007.
