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LA QUINTA, Calif — A chaotic week for 18-year-old Blades Brown was an inch away from a most spectacular highlight Friday when he narrowly missed a 6-foot birdie putt for 59, leaving him tied for the lead in The American Express with Scottie Scheffler.
Brown, who turned pro last year and is weeks removed from graduating high school, needed only one birdie over the final three holes on the Nicklaus Tournament course at PGA West, the easiest of three courses in the rotation in ideal weather.
He hit a gap wedge just right of the pin on his last hole, the par-4 ninth. He had the advantage of seeing David Ford go first on the same line. He picked his spot, rolled the putt and it stayed right, grazing the edge as the gallery groaned.
No matter.
“I’m so stoked,” he said, along with needing what he called a “fat nap.”
Brown earned Korn Ferry Tour status last year and was in the Bahamas for a tournament that didn’t end until Wednesday. He used a flight voucher he earned from a top-50 finish in the Myrtle Beach Classic last year to fly private to Palm Springs, arriving to his hotel about 8 p.m. on the eve of The American Express, where he is playing on a sponsor exemption.
And now he goes into the weekend tied with golf’s best player.
Scheffler wasn’t quite as sharp as he was in the opening round and still managed a bogey-free 64 on the Nicklaus course, playing before the largest gallery and two groups ahead of Brown.
What typically is a casual tournament in the Coachella Valley, set among desert mountains and palm trees and emerald green fairways, was a sellout on Friday.
Scheffler is a big draw in the strongest field in years. And now there’s a teenager who was one putt away from becoming the youngest player in PGA Tour history to break 60.
Brown wasn’t alone. As he was teeing off on his final hole at the Nicklaus course with a shot at 59, Andrew Putnam was on the 18th hole at La Quinta, needing birdie to break 60.
Both made par. And the tournament is half over, with thoughts now turning to a weekend that features Scheffler looming large as ever atop the leaderboard with a teenager, both at 17-under 127.
Si Woo Kim, a past champion here, shot 65 on the tougher Stadium Course at PGA West and was one shot behind.
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