Blades Brown, 19, is heading to the PGA Tour after making history on the Korn Ferry Tour
Mike Mulholland
The weather was awful and Blades Brown didn’t have his best.
The heralded 19-year-old from Tennessee entered the final round of the rainy Korn Ferry Tour Championship with a one-shot lead over Austin Hitt. He was looking to make history.
At the end of the day at the Federal Club in Glen Allen, Va., Brown shot two-under 69 and did not win. He did, however, still make history.
It was Hitt who delivered the victory, shooting 66 to win by two shots. It was his first victory on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Brown, born May 21, 2007, made history by becoming the youngest Korn Ferry Tour graduate to the PGA Tour at 19 years, 4 months and 20 days old. He clipped Jason Day by seven months for the new mark. His body of work for the season was good enough to see him finish in ninth place on the Korn Ferry Tour standings. Each of the top 20 earned full PGA Tour status for 2027.
Part of what helped secure Brown’s place on the PGA Tour was a third-place finish in March and second place finishes in April and this week at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship.
But some of the most memorable work from Brown this year came on the PGA Tour. He shot a second-round 60 in The American Express event in Palm Springs and played in Sunday’s final group with Scottie Scheffler. Understandably because of the magnitude of the situation, he shot 74 to tie for 18th place while Scheffler ran away with the title.
In March, Brown finished third place in the Puerto Rico Open, shooting a final-round 69 to end only three shots behind Ricky Castillo. After a 16th-place tie at the Colonial, Brown tied for 14th place at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson to earn Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour. At the time he was left with a decision on which tour to play most and opted to concentrate on the Korn Ferry Tour because he felt it was his best way to reach the PGA Tour for 2027.
Now that it’s all done, Brown played in a combined 28 events between the Korn Ferry and PGA tours.
And he’ll be playing all of his golf on the PGA Tour next year.