Almost a year ago, on January 18, 2024, a 20-year-old amateur, born in Huntsville, Alabama, began his participation in the American Express, a PGA Tour tournament, thanks to a sponsor’s invitation. Make no mistake: he was not just anyone. At that time, he was the reigning US Amateur champion, having won in the summer of 2023, and he also arrived at the event as the World Number 3 in the amateur ranking. His name was Nick Dunlap, of course, who is defending his title this week.
If he wasn’t just anyone then, he certainly isn’t now. Among other things, because four days later, on January 21, 2024, he was declared the winner of that American Express, becoming the first amateur to win a PGA Tour tournament since Phil Mickelson, no less, did so at the Northern Telecom Open in 1991. Days later, he decided to turn professional, and a few months after that, he won the Barracuda Championship, becoming the first player in PGA Tour history to win as an amateur and as a pro in the same season.
Today, for more details, at the age of 21, he is the World Number 32, and many are convinced, much more now than twelve months ago, that he is destined to fight for a victory in the Majors and for a spot in the world top ten. Let’s not rush, he is very young, but let’s note that the majors are currently his pending subject, as he missed the cut in the three he played last year, already as a professional. Not surprisingly, 2024 was a tough learning experience for him, concentrated in a very short time, frustrating at times, as he confessed this very week. A test from which he emerged with high marks, as his numbers indicate (besides becoming a solid top 50 in the world, he finished the season in 49th place in the FedEx Cup).
With such recent background and such a beautiful story to tell, this meteoric journey of Dunlap towards glory, it is reasonable that we also turn our heads towards Blades Brown…
And who is Blades Brown? Well, he is a young lad from Nashville, Tennessee, who has turned professional at the tender age of 17 and will play the American Express this week, enjoying a sponsor’s invitation. Does that sound familiar?
He is not exactly a nobody either, although his resume is far inferior to Dunlap’s a year ago (it couldn’t be otherwise: he’s only 17! Nick, compared to him, was quite the veteran). In the world amateur ranking, Brown did not surpass number 72, his best position, but he already has something in his bag of wonders to show: in the 2023 US Amateur, the one precisely won by Dunlap, he became the youngest player in history to win the stroke play phase (what in USGA jargon is the medalist), doing so at just 16 years old, breaking a 103-year-old record held by Bobby Jones (he was medalist in 1920, at 18 years old).
Moreover, last year, days before turning 17, he made his amateur debut in a PGA Tour tournament, the Myrtle Beach Classic, where he not only made the cut but also finished in a commendable 26th place. Anything beyond that result this week would have to be considered almost a small feat for the boy from Nashville, let’s not kid ourselves, but it’s better not to rule anything out, given what we’ve seen.
Nick Dunlap, who recently finished tenth at the Sony Open in Hawaii, has already earned the status of favourite in this peculiar week where play takes place on three different courses (the Pete Dye Stadium course and the Nicklaus Tournament course at PGA West, as well as La Quinta Country Club, with the Sunday round played at the Stadium). But there are other names with more weight in the predictions: Wyndham Clark, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel, Sungjae Im, Tom Kim, Sam Burns, or Tony Finau, among others.
