Blades Brown beats Ben James in playoff to win World Wide Technology Championship
The 19-year-old overturned a four-shot final-round deficit and outlasted Ben James in a playoff to become the youngest PGA Tour winner since 1931.
Blades Brown beat Ben James in a playoff to win the World Wide Technology Championship, becoming the youngest PGA Tour winner since 1931 and the first teenager to claim a title on the circuit since Jordan Spieth in 2013, Golf Monthly reported.
James had started the final round at El Cardonal at Diamante with a four-shot lead and the chance to cap an impressive rookie season with a maiden title of his own. Brown began the day seven shots behind the leader.
The rookie made a fast start, birdieing the first alongside playing partners Ryan Gerard and Chris Kirk, and held firm with pars at the second and third. A missed par putt at the fourth brought his first bogey of the day, and although a birdie at the sixth briefly steadied him, back-to-back bogeys followed.
By the turn his advantage had been cut to a single shot, with Gerard, Kirk, Brown, Michael Kim and Denny McCarthy all within range.
McCarthy was the one who took control through the middle of the round. A third birdie in four holes at the 10th drew him level with James at 20-under, and a tap-in birdie at the par-3 11th, set up by a tee shot that left him barely a putt, moved him into the outright lead.
James responded immediately with a birdie of his own at the 11th to rejoin McCarthy at the top, before Brown made his eighth birdie of the day at the 14th to put three players level.
McCarthy broke the deadlock with a 28-foot putt at the 13th to reach 22-under, only for James to miss a lengthy par attempt at the same hole moments later. Brown answered with a third consecutive birdie at the 15th to share the lead again.
McCarthy then bogeyed the 15th, handing Brown the outright lead, and narrowly missed a right-to-left birdie putt at the 16th that would have drawn him level once more. Brown went on to force a playoff with James before winning it to secure his maiden PGA Tour title.
Yahoo Sports, which has followed Brown since meeting him in late 2023, described the victory as the culmination of what it called his pro golf "side quest" this autumn, noting he had already secured his PGA Tour card for next season as a Korn Ferry Tour graduate before taking what the outlet termed "big show" reps in the fall.
Yahoo Sports detailed Brown's equipment changes since it first encountered him, which now include a Callaway Quantum Ti 3-wood, a Quantum Triple Diamond driver, updated Opus SP wedges and an Odyssey Double Wide putter.
The outlet also noted the physical profile behind his power: standing roughly 5ft 9in and weighing about 170 pounds, Brown is capable of generating ball speeds of up to 190mph off the tee when required.
The win closes out a fall swing in which Brown had already locked in his Tour status through the Korn Ferry Tour, with his maiden PGA Tour title now added before his rookie season proper begins.