This teenager? He is a professional, he flew privately and he leads on Tour | Weekend 9

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I call this Weekend 9. Think of it as a place to warm up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will have thoughts. We will have tips. We’ll have tweets. But only nine in all, though sometimes perhaps more and sometimes perhaps less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell part of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

If you’re reading this report, you’re probably surrounded by snow, or the cold, or by photos of your friends in much calmer climates, so let’s start with something warm and bright, like this:

“Yes, I love what I do. I love golf.”

Fine. That was from Blades Brown, who is now three-quarters of the way through a play attempt that may never have been made before – and is halfway home for something even more incredible. Here are your facts: On Sunday he teed off at the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour, of which he is a member, then played on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – before heading to the PGA Tour’s American Express, a tournament that runs Thursday through Sunday and inviting Brown to play on a sponsor exemption. Add all that together and you get this:

Brown was able to make eight straight plays to dawn of golf at the PGA Tour level, and as far as anyone knows, he might be the first to do so.

Which might be a fun trivia answer on Sunday night, because dude might win the thing. Please stay here with us.

The story starts 18 years ago, which is also when Brown did that. He is 18 years old, making him one of the youngest professional golfers – and there was a natural curiosity when he started his professional career with the American Express on a sponsorship exemption a year ago. How would the then 17-year-old play? How would he look away from the play? The first sentence of a story by Larry Bohannan, a local writer Palm Springs desert sun, summed it up like this:

For three days, Blades Brown was the story of The American Express, with the 17-year-old making birdies and thrilling galleries in his professional debut.

Brown was handsome. Before the AmEx he spoke about father and mother, who played in the WNBA and hit the league’s first 3-pointer. He talked about wanting to dunk. Brown then opened with a 72 and then shot a 64, which according to GOLF.com contributor Justin Ray, was the lowest score in a PGA Tour round by a player under 18 in the past 40 years. On his third day at American Express – the three-round event – ​​Brown shot a 74 and missed the cut, but stuck around for interviews, including one from American Express. belowcan be seen live on Golf Channel:

After all that, the people from American Express invited him. And the eight-day plan became a possibility. Brown earned the Korn Ferry spot through his full-time status on the tour (achieved by finishing in the top 75 in the circuit’s season standings last year). He also took a ride between the Bahamas and the West Coast. Last May, he played in the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic, where he got five hours of flight time from event sponsor and private jet company ONEFlight for finishing in the top 50 — and he cashed in. His schedule between tournaments looked like this:

– Completed the last round at the Abaco Club on Wednesday afternoon

– Showered

– Drove off course to Thompson International Airport in the Bahamas, where the private jet took off at 4 p.m. Eastern (“It was amazing,” Brown said Thursday. “My second time ever flying private. It was beautiful.”)

– Landed at Palm Springs International Airport at 6:30 PM Pacific

– Ate Panda Express

– Bought some groceries

– Went to sleep at 10 o’clock

– Woke up at 5am on Thursday

– I went to PGA West to warm up and roll some putts. (“I mean, it was 30 degrees windy all the way,” Brown said, “and then you get here and it’s perfect.”)

But could he, you know, play eight days straight? He would also have to cut back – and he certainly will, barring the unforeseen, after a Friday at the AmEx that few saw coming.

Brown birdied his first hole (the 10th on the Nicklaus Tournament Course). And eagle the second. And birdied the third. And the fourth. And the fifth. And the sixth. And the seventh. He was eight under – through seven. After a few pars, he finished his first nine with a 28. Then people start whispering. And Brown continued to be bummed. He birdied his 11th hole. And 13th. And 14th. And 15th. He was 12 under at the par-72 – with three holes to shoot 59. Or 58. Or 57.

Or 60.

Brown parried. On 18, after a wedge fell within a few feet of the hole, his birdie attempt slid down the right side. “I thought, OK, maybe just a little bit off the right edge,” he said. “Unfortunately it didn’t break.” Still, a 60 is a 60. That was equal to the best score of the day.

And through two rounds, Brown is tied with someone who is seemingly always at the top: world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. Of course, a lot can happen from here to Sunday, but a lot has already happened, and here is Brown. Should he win, he would be the second-youngest ever to do so on the PGA Tour, according to the PGA Tour record books. (The youngest was Charles Kocsis, who won the 1931 Michigan Open at 18 years, 6 months and 9 days; Brown will turn 19 in May.)

But again, that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

And on Friday night, Brown was thinking about other things.

“I’m going to take a nap after this,” he said, “and probably get some food.”

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for weekend 9.

2. The PGA Tour’s social media team documented Brown’s journey from the Bahamas to California, and you can watch it below.

The reputation he earned “was impossible to ignore,” he says. Doubts creep in during the most exciting moments, a condition that never bothers the player in 40th place. But instead of coalescing into an unbeatable bogeyman, the close calls somehow reduced Fleetwood’s fear of falling short – as long as he forced himself through a sick form of therapy. While it would have been natural to withdraw and discreetly lick his wounds, he went straight to the media and rewired his perception of those negative experiences.

“If you want to hit the highlights, you also have to endure the hits,” he says now. “I talk to myself when I do those interviews. I knew that if I spoke up right away and said the right things – the things I wanted to hear – that would be a very important part of the process for me.”

Fleetwood’s fearless vulnerability struck such a chord with PGA Tour staffers that they used his post-Travelers presser as a media relations showcase during their annual rookie orientation in November. If some of Fleetwood’s maxims – “Thoughts and feelings are the most natural things we have; you can’t fight them” – seem straight out of a self-help manual, they very well could be. He works with sports psychologist Bob Rotella and often rereads his books.

Again, here’s the story link, and here is the video link.

Another instructional tip for the weekend

8. With snowstorms approaching parts of the country, I thought the tweet below was worth sharing.

A golf story that interests me

9. This story here is good. Written by Bill Smith of techblog.com, it describes a mini golf putter that straightens the face as you putt, should you need it.

Smit wrote:

He wanted a putter that would give him a break in those frustrating times when he can’t quite put the ball in the hole despite his best efforts. At first glance it appears to be a standard-looking club with a machined head and a long shaft, but inside is a beast of a high-torque brushless motor, linked via a driveshaft to a worm gearbox that allows it to rotate the head around a vertical axis. This configuration ensures that the head remains stable upon impact, while allowing extremely quick adjustments during the swing.

What wave is on TV this weekend?

10. Let’s do 10 items! Here’s a look at golf on TV this weekend:

– Saturday

2am – 8am ET: Hero Dubai Desert Classic third round, Golf Channel

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET: Round 3 of American Express, Golf Channel

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM ET: Mitsubishi Electric Championship Finals, Golf Channel

– Sunday

2am – 8am ET: Hero Dubai Desert Classic final round, Golf Channel

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET: The final round of American Express, Golf Channel

A video that made me laugh

11. Let’s do 11 items! The video belowfrom Bridgestone Golf, was good.