Are we not appreciating Blades Brown enough?

For a young man whom it seems like we’ve all been writing about since he emerged from the womb, is it possible that we’re still not quite appreciating teenager Blades Brown enough? That thought occurred to me while writing on Friday about him shooting a 61 with back-to-back eagles in the second round of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. The stellar effort put him in the lead, and with another strong round cooking on Saturday, Brown is going to contend for his first KFT title on Sunday.

A win would cap a season in which Brown earned Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour in May and has five top-15 finishes on the big circuit this season. That didn’t stop him from going full out on the KFT, where Brown has made 18 starts, notched five top-10s and will easily secure his full PGA Tour card for next season, no matter if he wins this week. His consistency is eye-catching: 25 cuts made in a combined 29 starts.

We note all of this to emphasize one thing: He is still only 19 years old, and Brown is about to eclipse Jason Day’s mark from nearly 20 years ago in becoming the youngest player to earn his tour card off his play on the KFT. With all due respect to guys like Jackson Koivun and Luke Clanton, who reached the tour through PGA Tour Accelerated, Brown has forged his way by battling pros every week, and that only figures to give him the seasoning to regularly excel at the top level. All in all, it’s a fascinating time watching so many young guys contend seemingly every week.

Still hanging out there is Brown’s first big pro victory, and if that comes on Sunday, you figure he’d be the youngest to ever to win on the KFT. Not quite. Brown would lose out by nine days to Aldrich Potgeiter (2024 Bahamas). Oh well. When you’re 19, there are so many other worlds out there to conquer.

Teen phenom Blades Brown storms into KFT lead in his bid to make tour card history

There is only one thing missing from the 19-year-old's impressive combined PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour campaigns: a win.

By Tod Leonard

What You Need to Know

Tod Leonard

Min Woo Lee debuted his new YouTube channel this week, and your first question would probably be: He didn’t already have one? The popular and personable Aussie has built a massive social media fan base, with 985,000 followers on Instagram. Sure, he’s one of the best players in the world with a current ranking at No. 29, but he’s certainly a star of this age, with much of the attention starting with one catchphrase that dates back to the 2023 Players—“Let him cook!”—and the subsequent nickname of “The Chef,” with groups of fans following him at tournaments in chef hats. Lee seems like a fun-loving guy, but hardly outrageous, and maybe that’s the appeal. It’s all pretty chill.

His YouTube channel debut on Thursday had more than 26,000 views in less than 24 hours, and the 16-minute clip featured Lee addressing various queries for swing tips, with a couple of food questions thrown in. He seems like a good instructor, keeping advice simple and understandable. As for his culinary thoughts … there’s stuff about pineapples on pizza and his favorite meat dry rub. No spoilers here.

Luke Kerr-Dineen

I got a few questions about early extension in my recent Golf IQ mailbag episode.

I early extend in my own golf swing, and I think one of the biggest causes is hip mobility.

Most of us sit at a desk all day—I literally sit behind one talking about golf—and our hips get tighter and tighter along the way.

Then we go to swing, we have to turn them back and through, and they’re locked up. If you can’t turn, you extend instead. So the easiest fix is to improve your hip mobility.

Get to where you can turn your hips back and through and internally rotate them, and while it won’t solve everything, you’ll take away a big reason you were early extending in the first place.

Tod Leonard

Paul Goydos has always possessed one of the driest, funniest wits in pro golf. Bob Costas once asked him how he slept on his 54-hole lead, and Goydos replied, "On my back." Another time, he was asked if playing in 24 holes in the rain was difficult. “I'm a professional athlete. I'm offended by that question,” he quipped, “Sorry, America. Just kidding."

At 62, Goydos is still knocking his ball around on the PGA Tour Champions, and though there can be long gaps between truly contending—his last senior win came NINE years ago—he still finds that spark every once in a while, as Goydos did on Friday in shooting a 64 in the Furyk & Friends tournament in Florida. He was tied for the lead on Saturday midway through the second round. “I’m too inconsistent to be bad all the time,” Goydos deadpanned as an explanation.

Goydos is a guy that reporters wish more players would emulate. Honest and insightful, with the ability to put a funny spin on almost everything. On Friday, he explained the difference between a journeyman like himself and the elites of the game: “A guy like Ernie Els can win this tournament with his B-game. I have to have my A-plus game and also have good things happen. Tiger talks about winning tournaments with his C-game. My C-game misses every single cut for the rest of his life.”

You keep being you, Paul Goydos.

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