Teen earns $100K at PGA debut weeks after leaving | Golf News

Blades Brown, 18, pocketed practically $100K after ending T-18 at the second PGA Tour event of the 2026 season.

The teenager, competing on a sponsor’s exemption, made the journey from the Bahamas and secured his place alongside world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler for the ultimate spherical of The American Express. This outstanding achievement got here after a course-record 60 on Friday.

He also journeyed across the nation, protecting 2,500 miles and held a share of the lead getting into the weekend at American Express. This efficiency netted him $93,318 in prize money for his efforts.

“I’m 18 years old playing on the PGA Tour. How awesome is that?” Brown said. “Finished high school about two weeks ago, so it’s nice to have that burden off my back, but I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”

Brown also mentioned competing alongside Scheffler, emphasizing how a lot he can soak up from the world’s best participant.

“I think that would be awesome, yeah. Scottie is an unbelievable golfer,” said Brown. “I’d try to learn from him as much as I can the way he plays the golf course. There’s a lot of strategy in his game, and he’s obviously an unbelievable ball-striker. So it’s really cool watching him play some golf.”

Brown has already earned over $150K on the Korn Ferry Tour while making 10 of 16 cuts in his profession, but collected another paycheck value $93,318, matching PGA Tour comeback participant Will Zalatoris and Rickie Fowler who is still searching for a 2026 Masters invitation.

The younger golf sensation had a hectic week and started the ultimate day tied with Scheffler but finally dropped down the leaderboard considerably.

“Finished the round. Had to quickly take a shower and then drove to the airport,” said Brown before the event started. “Then hopped on a massive ONEflight jet. Ferren Rajput, he was kind of enough to escort me on the way here. It was a six-hour flight. I think it was his jet, so it was awesome. My second time ever flying private. It was beautiful.

“Then, yeah, arrived right here around 8:00 p.m. last night time. Got some Panda Express. Got some groceries. Slept, began sleeping at 10:00. Then woke up at around 5:00, received right here a little early to make a couple putts, because, I imply, it was blowing 30 your entire method, and then you get right here and then it is excellent. So it is two utterly different conditions. But I had a lot of enjoyable today, and bogey-free spherical, I’ll take that any day of the week.”

A hectic week for Brown concluded with a paycheck of nearly $100K and a whirlwind of fame after he played “rock-paper-scissors” in the center of a spherical and went on to end in the top-20.