Blades Brown finished second to Austin Hitt at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship on Sunday in Glen Allen, Va., to lock up his PGA Tour card at just 19 years and four months old
Brown entered the final event of the Korn Ferry Tour season 14th on the points list, with the top 20 at season’s end earning tour cards. Propelled by a second-round 61, Brown went 18 under par for the week and wound up two shots behind Hitt.
Brown landed ninth in the points list to become the youngest Korn Ferry Tour graduate in history. He broke the record held by Australia’s Jason Day, who was 19 years and 11 months old when he qualified for the PGA Tour via the then-Nationwide Tour in 2007.
A native of Nashville and the son of former WNBA player Rhonda Blades, Brown decided to forego the college route and turned pro in December 2024 at age 17. He played the Korn Ferry Tour each of the past two seasons while receiving sponsor exemptions into several PGA Tour events.
Brown tied for 14th with Brooks Koepka and Taylor Moore at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in May and received special temporary membership on the PGA Tour soon thereafter, which allowed him to accept an unlimited number of sponsor exemptions for the rest of the year.
He made nine of 11 cuts this season on the PGA Tour — highlighted by a solo third in March at the Puerto Rico Open — and made 16 of 18 cuts this year on the Korn Ferry Tour with two seconds, a third and a T5 on his ledger.
In addition to Hitt and Brown, the players to receive their PGA Tour cards for 2027 via the Korn Ferry Tour standings were points champion Ross Steelman, Sandy Scott of Scotland, Ian Holt, Alistair Docherty, Alvaro Ortiz of Mexico, Cole Sherwood, Doc Redman, Tommy Morrison, Cooper Dossey, Hunter Eichhorn, Dylan Menante, Michael Johnson, Jeremy Gandon of France, Taylor Dickson, Ian Gilligan, Davis Shore, Carson Young and Davis Lamb.
