LA QUINTA, Calif. — Blades Brown looked well beyond his 18 years under increasing attention Saturday at a PGA Tour event. The Tennessee teen finished with three straight birdies that left him tied with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, both of them one shot behind tournament leader Si Woo Kim going into the final round of The American Express.
The 30-year-old from South Korea had a 6-under-par 66 and the advantage of playing La Quinta Country Club in the third round as the wind finally arrived in the Coachella Valley. Scheffler and Brown were on the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West, the most difficult of three used for this tournament, even in calm conditions. Each shot a 68 in a much different fashion.
Brown, a Nashville native, was playing his seventh consecutive round after arriving from an event in the Bahamas on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour. That rigorous schedule didn’t stop him from playing “rock, paper, scissors” with a young fan before holing a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th, then following with a 45-foot birdie on the 18th.
Scheffler caught the worst of the wind — the fan turned on when he was on the second hole — and had two bogeys, which can be a lot for the player who has been No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking for more than 2 1/2 years. The 29-year-old Texan was on the verge of ending with another until holing a 25-foot par putt that swirled in on the last turn.
Kim was at 22-under 194 through 54 holes, with Scheffler and Brown right behind. They all will be part of the final group Sunday on the Stadium Course.