LA QUINTA, Calif. — It has been a chaotic week for 18-year-old Blaze Brown on Friday, coming simply inches away from the largest spotlight when he narrowly missed a 6-foot birdie putt for a 59 and tied for first place with Scottie Scheffler on the American Specific.
Brown, who turned skilled final 12 months and was weeks away from graduating from highschool, wanted only one birdie on the ultimate three holes of PGA West’s Nicklaus Match Course, the simplest of the three programs in a super climate rotation.
He hit a niche wedge good of the pin on the ultimate gap, the par-4 ninth. He had the benefit of seeing David Ford take the lead on the identical line. He picked a spot, rolled the putt, and because the gallery groaned, it stayed proper and grazed the sting.
it would not matter.
“I am so excited,” he stated, including that he wanted what he known as “an enormous nap.”
Brown earned Korn Ferry Tour standing final 12 months and was within the Bahamas to take part within the event, which does not finish till Wednesday. He flew privately to Palm Springs utilizing the ticket he received by ending within the high 50 ultimately 12 months’s Myrtle Seashore Traditional, arriving at his resort round 8 p.m. the evening earlier than the American Specific, the place he’s enjoying on a sponsor exemption.
And now he’ll enter the weekend alongside the perfect gamers in golf.
Though Scheffler wasn’t as sharp as he was within the opening spherical, he nonetheless shot a bogey-free 64 on the Nicklaus course and performed in entrance of the biggest gallery, two teams forward of Brown.
The informal event within the Coachella Valley, surrounded by desert mountains, palm bushes and emerald inexperienced fairways, was bought out on Friday.
Schaeffler is attracting quite a lot of consideration in its strongest subject lately. And now there’s a youngster who’s one putt away from turning into the youngest participant in PGA Tour historical past to show 60.
Brown wasn’t alone. Andrew Putnam wanted a birdie to interrupt 60 on the 18th gap at La Quinta when he was teeing off with a shot of 59 on the ultimate gap of the Nicklaus Course.
Each made par. And with the event half over, Scheffler is now serious about the weekend, when he and {the teenager} will loom bigger than ever on the high of the leaderboard at 17-under 127.
Kim Si-woo, a previous champion right here, shot a 65 on PGA West’s harder Stadium Course to come back inside one shot.
