PGA Tour
The (possibly brilliant) reason this 17-year-old phenom gave up his Byron Nelson sponsor's exemption this week
Sam Hodde
Blades Brown, a 17-year-old phenom from Nashville, Tenn., was given a sponsor exemption into this week's CJ Cup Byron Nelson on the PGA Tour. A golden ticket to professional golf's Wonka Factory, if you will. In a stunning move, Brown ... gave it up?
Not only did Brown give it up, but it may turn out to be a prudent career move for the rising star. In the third Korn Ferry Tour start of his career this past week, Brown tied for second at the Veritex Bank Championship, shooting 61-67-66-63 for a 27-under total. In the process he jumped from 140th to 44th on the KFT's points list, a key factor in his decision to pass on a potential sixth career PGA Tour start.
As both Ryan French (Monday Q Info on X/Twitter) and Golf Channel's Brentley Romine pointed out Sunday, Brown is now just 53 points away from special temporary membership on the KFT, and his finish at the Veritex got him into next week's KFT event, the Tulum Championship in Mexico. There, he'll be able to continue cracking away on points.
The extra KFT start is especially important for Brown, who has already received three exemptions on the KFT this year. Non-members are only allowed four. So if Brown were to go play the Byron Nelson this week, he'd only have one more KFT exemption remaining. By playing Tulum, he's now guaranteed two more cracks on the KFT.
With those two starts, Brown also will be able to make a run at the top 20 on the KFT points list, which comes with the ultimate professional golf golden ticket—a PGA Tour card. Right now, he's 227 points away, so there's work to be done. But, again, he needs only 53 points to earn special temporary membership on the KFT, which will earn him more starts and more opportunities to reach that top 20.
In other words, Brown is opting to play the long game, forgoing the shiny object that is a PGA Tour start in favor of the savvier career move that could eventually earn him full status on the big tour. Using sponsor's exemptions to play in four PGA Tour events this year, Brown has only made one cut on the big tour, finishing T-34 at the Mexico Open. That said, you could make a case that Brown has some momentum right now, and a strong week at Byron Nelson could earn him another opportunity on the PGA Tour. These are tough life decisions for a teenager, though given how talented he is, it seems like things are going to work out for him regardless.