The future is already here.
For the second week in a row, a teenager made his PGA Tour debut.
Like 16-year-old Kris Kim at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson last week, Blaze Brown will tee it up at this week’s Myrtle Beach Classic.
Brown, who last year became the youngest stroke play medalist in U.S. Amateur history, started Thursday with a 1-over 72.
“Oh my gosh, that was so much fun,” Brown said after the round.
“This course has some teeth. I’m not 100 percent comfortable with it yet, but I feel like the experience I’m getting this week is something you can’t pay for.”
Dunes Golf and Beach Club is hosting this opposite field event, which will be held the same week as the Wells Fargo Championship. Due to Hideki Matsuyama’s absence, it is now a representative event where 68 elite players can participate.
That doesn’t diminish the talent of Myrtle Beach’s players, including Ryder Cup stars Robert McIntyre, Joel Dahmen and Bo Hossler, who leads the way at 7 under after the first round.
“I was very excited when I heard I would be playing in a PGA Tour event,” Brown added.
“I didn’t get nervous until I got here. I started seeing all the grandstands and everything. But then I started getting used to it, hitting some balls and muscle memory started taking over,” he said. I can’t thank Myrtle Beach Classic enough for this opportunity.”
Brown admitted he was nervous during the first few holes, but who can blame him? He has never fought on a stage like this before.
“I was a little shaky on my first tee shot, but I decided to think of it as excitement instead of nerves,” Brown said.
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“But yeah, it was a lot of fun…I think it started around the third hole.”
The 16-year-old started with five straight pars and held on to 9 feet on the par-3 sixth for his first birdie. However, his first PGA Tour round was decided by a combination of birdies and bogeys, and he was barely par for the entire round.
In total, he had five birdies and six bogeys, two of which came on the 17th and 18th holes, a disappointing end to a dream-come-true day.
“This course is difficult,” Brown said.
“I [need to] I’m tightening up around the edges, but overall I feel solid on my game.It’s really close but I’m looking forward to it [Friday’s second round]”
He will have to move down the order to follow Kim’s lead and become the second teenager to play on the PGA Tour in recent weeks. But Brown has an idea of what he needs to do on Friday.
“Just course management and things like that,” Brown added.
“My job is just to hit the ball straight, and I don’t learn enough just being around them. Smack talk. There’s that too. Just where to hit it off the tee, where to hit it on the green. I…I just need to tighten up a few things, but I feel like this is where I belong.”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
