Eighteen-year-old Blades Brown shot 12-under-par 60 Friday to surge into a tie for the lead with World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler through two rounds of The American Express in La Quinta, Calif.
Brown, whose first PGA Tour event as a pro was last January at The American Express when he was 17, raced out to 8 under through seven holes on Friday. He shot the final 11 holes at 4 under, bogey-free, but failed to birdie any of the last three holes, one of which would have made him the youngest competitor in PGA Tour history to shoot 59.
Even still, Brown set a course record on the Nicklaus Tournament Course after shooting 5 under in Thursday’s opening round to enter the weekend tied with Scheffler atop the leaderboard at 17-under-par 127.
“I just really like this golf course. There’s something about the Nicklaus Course that I just really like,” Brown said after the round. “It’s so money. It’s so pure. Everything is just perfectly well kept. I love playing with no wind. So when you put all those things together it’s fun.”
This week’s field will play the first three rounds at three different courses, with one round at each: the Pete Dye Stadium Course, the Nicklaus Tournament Course and La Quinta Country Club. The cut will occur Saturday after 54 holes, with the top 65 players and ties advancing to Sunday’s round at the Pete Dye Stadium Course.
Scheffler and Brown each played La Quinta on Thursday and will play at the stadium course Saturday and Sunday, barring major collapses.
Scheffler took a more consistent path to the top of the leaderboard through two rounds, following up a 9-under showing Thursday with 8 under in the second round. He also did it in opposing fashion to Brown, just 2 under through eight holes before carding four birdies in his final six holes.
Neither Brown nor Scheffler has scored a bogey or worse through 36 holes of competition.
“If you want to make a name for yourself, you got to put up some good scores,” Scheffler said of Brown.
South Korea’s Si Woo Kim shot 7 under at the Stadium Course to grab sole possession of third place at 16 under, one stroke back. S.H. Kim of South Korea and Matt McCarty also had good days on the Nicklaus course, following 9-under opening rounds with 6 unders on Friday to enter the weekend tied for fourth place at 15 under.
Brown didn’t have sole possession of the best round of the day. Andrew Putnam also put up a 12 under on La Quinta after finishing even par in Round 1 to move into a tie for 18th.
Min Woo Lee of Australia and Pierceson Coody each plummeted back to earth Friday after they were co-leaders at 10 under following Round 1. Playing the stadium course, Lee shot 71 to fall back to a tie for 26th while Coody shot 72 to drop to a tie for 35th.
–Field Level Media
