THE CJ CUP BYRON NELSON

May 24, 2026

Blades Brown

TPC Craig Ranch

Quick Quotes

Q. Good round today. Good tournament.

BLADES BROWN: Thank you.

Q. You have this. What's next, and what kind of thoughts are involved in your future?

BLADES BROWN: Good finish here at the Byron Nelson. I think I'm going to play next week in Raleigh on the Korn Ferry Tour. Then, yeah, we'll see what we're going to do after that.

Q. What kind of factors are going to influence your decision whatever you make?

BLADES BROWN: I mean, good golf takes care of everything. The Korn Ferry Tour is awesome. For me, what it's done for me is it's provided me a pathway to the PGA TOUR.

The cool thing that I think it's done is it's taught me to go low. I can't thank the Korn Ferry Tour enough for teaching me those valuable lessons because everybody out on the PGA TOUR, they can go low. Look at Wyndham, look at Scottie, look at Si Woo. 28-under, 27-under is not joke. Without the Korn Ferry Tour, I would not have had that strength.

I'm excited for the next couple of weeks and see what's going to happen.

Q. Big picture, are you here faster than you thought you would be?

BLADES BROWN: Absolutely. Absolutely, yes. Yes.

Q. I don't know what your picture or your vision was, but can you put it into context?

BLADES BROWN: Yeah, I try to set my own goals and standards, but it's -- I've never really, I guess -- it just kind of happens. Like I just try to take it one shot at a time, control the controllables that I can, and just try to let everything else happen on its own.

Q. Do you feel -- I don't know if it's the right word. Do you feel a sense of vindication? When you made your decision, people can say whatever they want to about the decision you made, but now that you've made the decision and you've got some status, do you feel a sense of vindication in some sense?

BLADES BROWN: Yeah, absolutely. I know my route to the PGA TOUR is a very uncommon route. It's mainly because of my parents. They've been my biggest supporters. They've sacrificed so much, especially my dad. He's been -- I think he's missed about two events in my entire life, and he believed in me whenever I didn't believe in myself.

It's been pretty cool, and I'm really happy with the decision I made to turn pro.

Q. Speaking kind of along the lines of maybe unconventional pathway, you got to play with Tony Finau. Did you get to pick his brain or talk a little bit about pathway and turning professional?

BLADES BROWN: Absolutely. We talked about playing one-on-one, and I would smoke -- no, I'm just kidding (laughter). In basketball.

But I just tried to pick his brain on some advice. He obviously hits the ball a long way. He told me that before he was on TOUR, he had like 195 ball speed, which is insane. He said I kind of had to dial that back a little bit because on the PGA TOUR you need to hit fairways. He said that precision is key. Precision and then distance, not distance and then precision.

Yeah, Tony is an awesome guy. It was pretty fun playing out there with him today.