U.S. Junior medalist Blades Brown meets Tiger Woods, then joins him in exclusive USGA club
Blades Brown got to meet Tiger Woods earlier this week at Oakland Hills, briefly chatting and taking a photo with the three-time U.S. Junior Amateur champion who was watching his son, Charlie, compete in his first USGA championship.
A day later Brown joined Woods in an exclusive club.
Brown fired a 2-under 68 on the more difficult South Course to finish at 6 under and capture medalist honors by a shot over fellow U.S. National Team member Tyler Watts. Brown, a rising high-school junior from Nashville, Tennessee, is now just the third player, along with Woods and Bobby Clampett, to be medalist at both the U.S. Junior and U.S. Amateur (he achieved the latter feat last summer at Cherry Hills).
“It gives me so much momentum and fuel and confidence,” Brown said. “But in match play anything can happen. I’m looking forward to it.”
As the top seed, Brown draws Alex Huang, who got through a 13-for-9 playoff on Wednesday morning.
In all, 14 of the top 30 players in the AJGA rankings advanced to match play, including No. 1 Miles Russell and fellow top-10 juniors Watts and Luke Colton. While Charlie Woods shot 22 over and beat just 17 players in the 262-player field, both of Woods’ playing competitors qualified for the knockout stage – Davis Ovard, a rising Baylor sophomore who won the North and South Amateur a few weeks ago, and Alabama commit Chase Kyes. And a PGA Tour pro’s son did advance after all – Luke Gutschewski, whose dad, Scott, currently plays on Tour.
“The first three holes yesterday I was pretty nervous,” Kyes said. “I’ve never played in front of a crowd like that before. … The crowd was close to the same today as it was yesterday. Once the rain came, a few people left, but it was a great experience. Good for the future.”
