Blades Brown, 19, Wins on the PGA Tour; Golf Historians Cannot Agree Whether He Is the Youngest in 88 Years or 95

LOS CABOS, Mexico — When I was 19, I had a car that only started downhill and a job running the chain gang at Friday night games. Blades Brown is 19, and on Sunday he won a PGA Tour event and $1.08 million. I want to be happy for the kid. I am happy for the kid. I also want to know which year to put in the headline, and nobody will tell me.

Here is what everybody agrees on.

Brown started the final round of the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante seven shots behind Ben James, a 23-year-old rookie who led by four going into Sunday. Brown shot a 9-under 63. He finished at 23-under 265. James eagled the 18th hole to tie him and force a playoff, which is about as gutsy as golf gets.

“Had a feeling that it was going to go in,” James said of the eagle putt. “Hadn’t really made anything all day.”

They went back to 18. Both nearly made eagle. They went back to 18 again. James pitched to 8 feet, Brown to 3. James’ birdie putt grazed the right edge, ESPN reported. Brown made his 3-footer. That is the ballgame.

The part nobody agrees on

ESPN says Brown, at 19 years and 171 days, is the youngest PGA Tour winner since Bobby Dunkelberger won the St. Augustine Pro-Amateur in 1938 at 18. That is 88 years.

The Associated Press says he is the youngest winner in 95 years, since Charles Kocsis won the 1931 Michigan Open at 18. Golf Channel went with 95 too, and called Brown the fourth-youngest winner in tour history, behind Kocsis, Harry Cooper in 1923 and Ralph Guldahl in 1931.

So depending on who you read, Bobby Dunkelberger either won a PGA Tour event in 1938 or went to Florida and played some golf. I have been covering sports for 31 years. I have seen a lot of disputed calls. I have never seen a dispute where the disputed thing happened before the forward pass got popular.

I called around. The best I can figure is that the record books count different tournaments from the 1930s as official, and those tournaments are not available for comment. Somebody kept a ledger in 1938. Somebody else kept a different ledger in 1931. Nobody kept the referees, which is the first time in my career I have wished somebody had.

What is not in dispute

Everybody agrees he beat Jordan Spieth’s number. Spieth won the 2013 John Deere Classic at 19 years, 352 days, and we all thought that was young. Brown beat it by about half a year. Back in my day a 19-year-old on a golf course was carrying somebody else’s bag.

Brown turned pro as a junior in high school, ESPN reported. He earned his card on the Korn Ferry Tour. Golf Channel reported that he and Tiger Woods are the only players to have been medalist at both the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Junior Amateur. The win gets him a two-year exemption and a spot in next year’s PGA Championship. He pocketed $1.08 million of a $6 million purse, the PGA Tour said. James took home $654,000, which is a lot of money for a guy who just lost a playoff and is still a very good young golfer with a very good eagle in his pocket.

“It hasn’t set in just yet, I guess, the magnitude of being a PGA Tour winner,” Brown said. “I just go back to 5-year-old Blades that was watching the TV and watching Tiger Woods.”

Five-year-old Blades. That was 2012. I was already mad at the 1997 referees by then. The kid was learning his ABCs.

“I’m so obsessed with this game,” he said. “It tests you in so many ways.”

It does. It also tests the historians, who got a seven-shot comeback on a Sunday afternoon and turned it into a seven-year argument about which Depression-era teenager counts.

I rank nachos at every course I visit. I have not been to El Cardonal. I will say this: any concession stand that sold a hot dog to a guy who was seven back at noon and walked off with a million dollars by dinner has earned a spot on my list sight unseen.

Verdict: the kid wins in 88 years or 95; the record books lose in a playoff.