Fort Worth Inc.
Blades Brown on the No. 14 tee box.
Nearly a century after 17-year-old Ben Hogan launched his professional career in San Antonio, Fort Worth on Thursday was introduced to another ambitious golf wunderkind.
Blades Brown, newly minted as a professional golfer and 18-year-old, toured Colonial Country Club’s 18 holes in 2-under par 68 in the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge.
The world’s top-ranked golfer, Scottie Scheffler, is in the same group on the leaderboard, 13 players, all of them five strokes back of leader John Pak, who shot a 7-under 63. Brown, a Nashville native, had three birdies and a bogey at the tail end of the Horrible Horseshoe at No. 5. They are all playing for a piece of a more than $9 million purse.
More importantly, Brown is in good position to make the cut in his seventh PGA Tour event. Brown left some strokes out there, missing makeable birdie putts on Nos. 13 and 15. He drained a 28-footer on the par-3 to get to 2 under.
When asked if he knew Hogan, he answered as any good teen would, except without the “pffft.”
“Of course, I know Ben Hogan,” he said with a big smile, incredulous at my apparent lack of faith in humanity’s grasp of history.
Brown turned pro in January at 17 years old. His 18th birthday was on Wednesday. He spent it with friends at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in downtown Fort Worth. His caddie Jack Bethmann bought him his first pair of cowboy boots, in the Stockyards at Tecovas.
Brown has no status on any major tour. He is playing at Colonial as a Champions’ Choice, a 72-year-old tournament tradition in which all living Charles Schwab Challenge champions — there are 47 currently — collectively choose two young professionals who have never before been eligible for the invitational event. In addition to Brown, former champions also selected Neal Shipley, an Ohio State golfer.
Brown has played the other six PGA Tour tournaments, including five in 2025, on a sponsor’s exemption. However, his performance on the Korn Ferry Tour might soon force a change in his opportunities.
In his third Korn Ferry start, Brown finished as runner-up at the Veritex Bank Championship at Texas Rangers Golf Club in Arlington. That put him within striking distance — 53 points — of earning “special temporary membership” on the PGA Tour. Special temporary members are effectively guaranteed a full slate of starts before the Korn Ferry Tour finals. They’re also allowed to accept unlimited sponsor exemptions.
The top 20 players on the seasonlong Korn Ferry points List — finalized after the Tour finals in October — will earn 2026 PGA Tour cards. Brown entered this week No. 66.
So, a good showing in Fort Worth could be a nice feather in the cap, as someone has said.
“I tell people all the time, after every single [professional] event I feel like I'm exponentially better the next time,” Brown says. “I think that just comes with experience, whether that's handling the travel or figuring out what recipe works for you. But, I mean, there's nothing better than playing in the PGA orbit at 18 years old. Nothing better.”
Few would know, of course. This is pretty elite stuff.
This conversation about golf history came up because he’s already made some.
Brown broke Bobby Jones’ 100-year-old record as youngest stroke-play medalist in the 2023 U.S. Amateur at only 16. Jones was 18 when he set the standard in 1920. Brown also earned medalist honors at the 2024 U.S. Junior, joining Tiger Woods and Bobby Clampett as players to medal at both national championships.
At the U.S. Amateur, he also set the course of record at Colorado Golf Club with an 8-under 64 — with four bogeys.
Before turning pro, Brown had climbed to No. 1 on the Rolex AJGA Rankings and was named 2024 AJGA Rolex Junior Player of the Year.
Since his sophomore year in 2023-24, he has done schooling through an online opted for online schooling to better manage his golf schedule.
Brown has made three cuts in his first six PGA Tour events, including two this season. His best finish this year was a tie for 34th at the Mexican Open. Earlier in the season, he finished tied for 37th at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic.
It was at Myrtle Beach a year ago that he made his PGA Tour debut as an amateur. Brown not only made the cut but finished with rounds of 66-69 to finished 26th.
For the record, Hogan didn’t play well and withdrew from the Texas Open in 1930 in his first professional go. (As an aside, Hogan tried to enter the Fort Worth city championship for amateurs in April of that year. “I didn’t receive any prize money in the [Texas Open] and feel that I am still an amateur,” Hogan said. The city disagreed.)
Hogan didn’t win individually on the PGA Tour until 1940, besting Sam Snead by three strokes to win the North and South Open Golf Championship on Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina. That was merely the beginning of a historic stretch.
College is typically the route to take to the PGA Tour, but Brown decided to forgo school and get started early. Hogan did that, too, though the times are completely dissimilar. Golf in those days wasn’t anywhere close to the organized intercollegiate sport we know.
“There are trade-offs in everything that you do,” Brown says of skipping university. “I saw my game being challenged and I saw me maturing as an individual by turning professional. Luckily, I had awesome people around me that kind of paved that pathway, but it's hard to turn down competing on the PGA Tour. It's hard to turn that down.”
Brown has some good friends in town watching him from their hometown of Nashville. His mother, former WNBA player, Rhonda Blades Brown, and his sister are planning to make the trip this weekend, if he’s still around.
Tomorrow could get interesting. Brown tees off at 1:40 p.m. Wind gusts of 30 mph are forecast. That always messes with players here.
“I played really, really smart golf, executed the shots despite a questionable swing on No. 5,” Brown says. “That unfortunately left me with the bogey. But I thought I played really well today and I'm going to try to repeat that tomorrow.”