Blades Brown has one sole passion: golf. To do that, he has taken up a rather bold decision. He has made a daring choice to skip college and turn professional. The young golfer made his professional debut at the PGA Tour’s American Express, following an extraordinary amateur career.
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Brown’s decision to turn pro at such a young age is not entirely without precedent. Akshay Bhatia made a similar leap at 17 in 2019. For a 17-year-old, it is not possible to make such a stern decision if his parents are not supportive. His parents are the strongest pillars of strength for him. He is the proud son of Parke Brown and Rhonda Brown, and, well, his family, too, is a rather athletic one.
Rhonda played professional basketball and is an award-winning coach at Brentwood Academy for the Tennessee Women’s Basketball team. She had an exceptional career in American college basketball and played for Vanderbilt University. She was there for four seasons, appearing in 132 games and scoring a total of 1017 points, having 408 rebounds, and 505 assists.
After her college career, she was drafted by the New York Liberty for the first season in 1997 in the WNBA. She made history by scoring the first 3-shot in the circuit. Following her rookie season, she joined the Detroit Shock for her second and final season in the WNBA. Afterward, Rhonda continued her basketball career overseas, playing in Israel and Turkey with notable success. Though she never returned to compete at the highest level in the United States.
In 2001, Rhonda decided to retire from professional basketball and transitioned into coaching. She took on the head coach role for the Brentwood Academy women’s basketball team in Tennessee. Under her leadership, the team has achieved remarkable success, winning five state championships and securing four runner-up finishes.
While his mother was an exceptional player, his father might not have been very active in basketball, but had the shared the love of golf like his son and is also his biggest cheerleader.
Parke has never missed out on any of his son’s tournaments. “He’s the water guy. He has the snacks. He calls himself the commissary,” Brown said about his father to Main Street Press. “We’ll finish a hole, and he’ll set up shop with his backpack with Quest bars, protein bars, and water, and set it out on the next tee. Half the time I’m like, ‘No, I’m good, I’m good.’”
It was because of his father that Brown took up golf. He was initially following in the footsteps of his mother and leaning towards basketball instead. However, things have not always been sparkly for the senior Brown. All hell broke loose when, in 2022, Parke was diagnosed with hairy cell leukemia. The doctor said that he only had a year to live. But he did not give up on his son.
Battling through chemotherapy was difficult. But he continued supporting his son even then. Today, Parke Brown is not just alive, but he is also healthy. It was watching his father strongly fight through the battle that gave Blades Brown the strength to play even better and come out triumphant.
🥹 Post round @BladesBrown2026’s dad was very thankful to see his son enjoy success this week at @MyrtleBeachCl: “A year and a half ago I had a year left to live…” “Lord gave me some more time.” 🙏
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) May 11, 2024
After all their hard work and efforts, Brown is paying them back by doing his best on the fairway. And that is bringing his parents a lot of pride.
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Blades Brown is making his parents proud
Right from the beginning, Blades Brown had proven himself to be a golfer with immense potential. He had an extraordinary amateur career, which was highlighted by becoming the youngest medalist in U.S. Amateur history in 2023. Brown broke a 103-year-old record earlier held by Bobby Jones. He also joined an elite group of players, including Tiger Woods and Bobby Clampett, who have won both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior titles.
Learning that his son had gone into the record books made Parke incredibly proud. He told NBC Sports, “You hear the youngest person in history to be medalist in a U.S. Amateur was Bobby Jones at 18, and then you hear someone did it at 16. You would’ve thought it was Tiger or Jack or somebody like that who did it. But no, it was my son.”
After matching Woods’ record, Brown joined the field in the 2026 American Express to compete with Scottie Scheffler. He ended up scoring a 12-under par 60 to go level on scores after the second round of the event against the world #1.
Excited after his excellent performance, Brown told the media, “I think that would be awesome, yeah. Scottie is an unbelievable golfer. I’d try to learn from him as much as I can about the way he plays the golf course. There’s a lot of strategy in his game, and he’s obviously an unbelievable ball-striker. So it’s really cool watching him play some golf.”
Watching their son compete with the best in the world must have excited his parents. Despite the terrible broadcast, they would be keenly watching the action to see if he can claim his first PGA Tour win.
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