CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Blades Brown’s mother, Rhonda, was the first player in WNBA history to record a 3-point shot.
On Tuesday at Colorado Golf Club, the 16-year-old Brown made five 3’s of his own, firing a course-record, 8-under 64 to grab co-medalist honors at the 123rd U.S. Amateur.
“I was told the U.S. Am is like one level down from the U.S. Open,” Brown said. “To be able to shoot 8 under here is awesome. It really gives me confidence in my game and my practice.”
One of the youngest players in the field, the incoming high school sophomore from Nashville, Tennessee, got off to a slow start to this championship, carding six bogeys and shooting 1-over 72 at Cherry Hills in Monday’s opening round. He was 1 over after five holes and without a par on Tuesday before heating up, playing his next seven holes in 5 under. That run included a hole-out eagle with a 58-degree wedge at the 311-yard, par-4 eighth hole.
“We were planning on going for that green, but it had to be perfect conditions,” Brown said. “There was a slight breeze into and I was like, ‘Is it worth going for it on this par 4?’ We hit a 4-iron, it was like my money club, and I had 100 yards exactly. I kind of thinned it, but I played it off the slope and apparently it one-hopped in. That’s probably what kick-started my back nine.”
Blades Brown, 16, became the youngest co-medalist in #USAmateur history today, breaking Bob Jones’ record set in 1920 at age 18.
— Brentley Romine (@BrentleyGC) August 16, 2023
This was Brown’s shot of the day, a hole-out eagle with a 58-degree wedge at the 311-yard 8th at Colorado GC, where he shot a course-record 64. pic.twitter.com/u5XYUVn1x2
Brown birdied Nos. 11-12 and then capped his day with an eagle-birdie-birdie finish, the final birdie coming from 15 feet to get Brown in the clubhouse at 7 under, which would later be good enough to share medalist honors with Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan and Cal’s Sampson Zheng after Tennessee’s Caleb Surratt, a friend of Brown’s, double-bogeyed Cherry Hills’ 18th hole to drop to 6 under.
“Could happen to anyone,” Surratt said. “No matter how good you’re playing, you have to step up and hit two great shots.”
Brown hit more than a couple great shots. Of course, great shooting is in his blood. Rhonda Blades Brown starred at point guard for Vanderbilt in the 1990s before spending time in the WNBA, where in 1998 she was the No. 1 pick in the 1998 expansion draft. Blades can hoop too, but golf is now his main sport as he’s climbed to No. 6 in the AJGA rankings.
The Class of 2026 recruit has yet to commit to a school, so he’ll likely have a horde of college coaches waiting for him on the first tee Wednesday at 9 a.m. when Brown, the top seed and the youngest U.S. Amateur medalist/co-medalist ever (breaking an 18-year-old Bobby Jones’ record set in 1920), takes on Benton Weinberg of Potomac, Maryland.
That match will kick off a day full of scintillating matchups, headlined by Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent and Alabama’s Nick Dunlap, two Walker Cuppers who are considered the two best pro prospects in amateur golf, squaring off in a battle that could easily be a final. Other notable matches include Oklahoma State’s Jonas Baumgartner vs. North Carolina’s Austin Greaser, Zheng vs. Arizona State’s Preston Summerhays, Surrat vs. North Carolina’s Dylan Menante and Auburn’s J.M. Butler vs. Oklahoma’s Andrew Goodman.
Wednesday will also be void of a playoff, as exactly 64 players finished at even par or better, the first time that’s happened since 2000. The cut line was 1 over late, but it moved to even after a live-scoring error was corrected, changing a closing double bogey by Menante to a par. That update sent a group of players home that included Stewart Hagestad, a three-time Walker Cupper who has twice advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur. Hagestad shot 77 on Day 1 while carding a ‘10’ on one hole, but he rallied to shoot 4-under 67 Tuesday at Cherry Hills, getting up and down for par from 200-plus yards on the par-4 finishing hole to get in at 1 over.
That wasn’t the only wild part of the day. Summerhays tripled No. 18 after hitting the flagstick with a greenside bunker shot to eventually advance on the number. UCLA’s Omar Morales, who qualified for the U.S. Open earlier this summer, thought he’d finished at even par too, but he was handed a one-shot penalty for slow play; he then waited hours only to find out 1 over wouldn’t be good enough to play on.
But 64 players will see another day at Cherry Hills:
The stars like Sargent and Dunlap.
The cool stories like Tennessee’s Bryce Lewis, who has Steven Fox, the 2012 U.S. Amateur champ at Cherry Hills, on his bag.
And the potential Cinderellas like Blades Brown, the 16-year-old with the cool golf name who is just heating up.