This teenager? He is a professional, he flew private and he is leading the Tour

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this weekend 9. Think of it as a place to warm up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We will have thoughts. We will have advice. We will have tweets. But only nine in all, though sometimes perhaps more and sometimes perhaps less. But who am I? The following paragraphs tell some of the story. It can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

If you’re reading this report, you’re probably surrounded by snow, or cold, or photos from your friends in much milder climes, so let’s start with something warm and bright, like this:

“Yes, I love what I do. I love to play golf.”

That’s good. This was from Brown bladeswho is now three-quarters of the way through an effort that has probably never been attempted before—and halfway home to something even more incredible. Here are your facts: On Sunday, he played in the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he is a member, then he played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – before heading to the PGA Tour American Expressa tournament that runs Thursday through Sunday and invited Brown to play with a sponsor exemption. Add it all up and you get this:

Brown can play eight straight day of PGA Tour-level golf, and as far as anyone can tell, he would be the first to do so.

Which, on Sunday night, might just be a cute little answer, because the dude might be win the thing. Please stay with us here.

The story begins 18 years ago, which is also when Brown did it. Eighteen is Brown’s age, making him one of the youngest professional golfers – and there was natural curiosity when, a year ago, he began his professional career at American Express with a sponsorship exemption. How would the then 17-year-old play? How would he look away from the game? The first sentence of a story by Larry Bohannan, a close-up writer Palm Springs Desert Sun, summed it up this way:

For three days, Blades Brown was the story of The American Express, with the 17-year-old making exciting birdies and bogeys in his professional debut.

Brown was a character. In front of AmEx, he talked about his father and mother, who played in the WNBA and hit the league’s first 3-pointer. He spoke of the desire to drown. Brown then opened with a 72, then shot a 64, which, according to GOLF.com contributor Justin Rayit was the lowest score in a PGA Tour round by a player under the age of 18 in the last 40 years. On his third day at American Express — the event plays three rounds — Brown stumbled to a 74 and he missed the cut, but he hung around for interviews, including belowwhich was shown live on the Golf Channel:

After all that, the folks at American Express invited him back. And the eight-day plan became a possibility. Brown earned the Korn Ferry spot through his full-time status on the tournament (earned by finishing in the top 75 last year in the county in-season point standings). He also took a trip between the Bahamas and the West Coast. Last May, he played in the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic, where he was awarded five hours of flight time by event sponsor and private jet company ONEFlight by finishing in the top 50 — and he earned it. His schedule between tours looked like this:

– Finished the final round at the Abaco Club on Wednesday afternoon

– I took a shower

– Departed the course for Thompson International Airport in the Bahamas, where the private jet took off at 4 p.m. Eastern (“It was great,” Brown said Thursday. “My second time flying private. It was nice.”)

– Landed at 6:30pm Pacific at Palm Springs International Airport

– That Panda Express

– I bought some groceries

– Went to sleep at 10 o’clock

– I woke up at 5 on Thursday

– I went out to PGA West to warm up and roll some shots. (“I mean, it was blowing 30 the whole way,” Brown said, “and then you get here and then it’s perfect.”)

But can he, you know, play eight days in a row? He would have to make a pair of cuts as well — and he probably will, barring the unexpected, after a Friday at AmEx that some saw coming.

Brown birdied his first hole (10th on the Nicklaus Tour Course). And the second eagle. And the third bird. And the fourth. And the fifth. And the sixth. And the seventh. He was eight under – through seven. After a pair of pars, he finished his front nine with a 28. People start whispering then. And Brown kept dancing. He birdied his 11th hole. And the 13th. And the 14th. And the 15th. He was 12 over at par-72 – with three holes left to shoot a 59. Or a 58. Or a 57.

Or 60.

Brown split. On the 18th, after a wedge dropped a few feet short of the hole, his birdie attempt skimmed the right side of it. “I was thinking, OK, maybe just a little bit off the right edge,” he said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t break.” Still, a 60 is a 60. That tied for the best score of the day.

And, through two rounds, Brown is tied for the lead with someone who seems to always be on top: world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. A lot can happen between now and Sunday, of course, then again, a lot has already happened, and here’s Brown. If he wins, he would be the second-youngest ever to do so on the PGA Tour, according to the PGA Tour record books. (The youngest was Charles Kocsis, who, at 18 years, 6 months, 9 days, won the 1931 Michigan Open; Brown turns 19 in May.)

But again, this is getting ahead of things.

And on Friday night, Brown was thinking about other things.

“I’m going to go take a nap after this,” he said, “and maybe get some food.”

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the 9th weekend.

2. The PGA Tour social media team captured Brown’s trip from the Bahamas to California, and you can watch it here below.

The representation he was getting “was impossible to ignore,” he says. Doubts crept in at the most tense moments, a grief that never plagues the 40th-ranked player. But instead of coalescing into an invincible man, the close conversations somewhat eased Fleetwood’s fear of getting in trouble—so long as he forced himself to undergo a sick form of therapy. When it would have been natural for him to step back and discreetly lick his wounds, he went straight to the media and reclaimed his perception of those negative experiences.

“If you’re going to make it to the top, you have to take the hits,” he says now. “I’m talking to myself when I’m doing those interviews. I knew that if I spoke up right away and said the right things — the things that I want to hear, too — that would be a really important part of the process for me.”

Fleetwood’s fearless vulnerability struck such a chord with PGA Tour staff that, at their annual rookie orientation in November, they used his post-Travelers presser as a prime example of media relations. If some of Fleetwood’s maxims—”Thoughts and feelings are the most natural things we have; you can’t fight them”—seem straight out of a self-help manual, they very well may be. He works with sports psychologist Bob Rotella and frequently re-reads his books.

again, here is the connection of the story and here is the video link.

Another guide tip for the weekend

8. With snowstorms approaching parts of the country, I thought I’d tweet below it was worth sharing.

A golf story that interests me

9. This story here it is good. Written by Bill Smith of techblog.com, it describes a mini-golf putter that guides your face as you putt, if you need to.

Smith wrote:

He wanted a putter that would give him a break from those frustrating moments when he just couldn’t get the ball in the hole despite his best efforts. On the surface, it appears to be a standard-looking club with a machined head and long shaft, but inside it houses a beast of a high-torque brushless motor, coupled via a drive shaft to a worm gear box that allows it to rotate the head around a vertical axis. This setup keeps the head stable on impact while allowing extremely quick mid-stroke adjustments.

What golf is on TV this weekend?

10. Let’s make 10 items! Here’s a roundup of golf on TV this weekend:

– Saturday

02:00-08:00 ET: Hero Dubai Desert Classic third round, Golf Channel

4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET: American Express Third Round, Golf Channel

7:00-10:00 PM ET: Final Round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship, Golf Channel

– Sunday

02:00-08:00 ET: Hero Dubai Desert Classic Final Round, Golf Channel

4pm-7pm ET: American Express Final Round, Golf Channel

A video that made me laugh

11. Let’s make 11 items! The video belowfrom Bridgestone Golf, it was good.