In this week’s ‘The Starter,’ Blades Brown turns a PGA Tour card for next season into an exemption through 2028. Jon Rahm’s win at Yas Links puts him in the field for Thursday’s season finale in Dubai. Aki Iwai has an even shorter turnaround. After finishing second to Shuri Sakuma in Japan, she’s slated to play Tuesday in Florida for a women’s team league that’s one match old.

PGA TOUR: Brown Wins in Mexico at 19

Two Routes to a Playoff

Ben James came to the par-5 18th at El Cardonal at Diamante needing eagle. He hit his second shot from 285 yards to about 20 feet and made the putt, matching Brown at 23-under 265 in the World Wide Technology Championship. Brown had begun Sunday seven back and closed with a 9-under 63. Both birdied the first extra hole, and Brown won with another birdie on their second trip back to the 18th tee.

At 19 years, 5 months and 18 days, Brown became the youngest PGA Tour winner since Charles Kocsis in 1931. James, 23, earned his membership by finishing first in the 2026 PGA Tour University rankings. Brown turned professional at 17 and took the Korn Ferry Tour route, finishing ninth on its points list this year to earn a 2027 card. Two ways of getting to the PGA Tour put them on the same tee twice after regulation.

An Exemption Through 2028

Winning in Los Cabos secures Brown’s exemption through 2028, when he’s due to play in the PGA Tour’s new Championship Series. James recorded his second runner-up finish in 13 starts this season. The eagle came at the end of a 70, a round that cost him a four-shot overnight lead and still gave him a chance to win.

Brown’s Korn Ferry Tour classmate Alvaro Ortiz also left with somewhere to play. The Guadalajara native tied for sixth at 19 under, his best finish in 14 PGA Tour starts. His top 10 earned him a spot in this week’s Austin Championship. Ortiz had already earned 2027 membership, so the immediate reward was another start before his rookie season begins.

DP World Tour: Rahm Rises to Sixth

The Second Leaderboard at Yas Links

Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton arrived in Abu Dhabi with five Rolex Series wins apiece. A 5-under 67 gave Rahm his sixth, a record, on his first appearance in the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship. He finished at 23 under, two ahead of Hatton, who closed in 68. Rory McIlroy shot 69 to finish third, four back, after briefly sharing the lead with Rahm, Hatton and Francesco Laporta on the back nine.

The win carried 1,500 Race to Dubai points. Rahm went from No. 51 to No. 6 heading into a finale reserved for the top 50 available players. He’d left LIV Golf the previous month, and Abu Dhabi was his first tournament since the departure. Now he has a place on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates and a chance, from sixth, at the season title.

McIlroy also gained ground by finishing third. He passed Patrick Reed for second in the standings and goes to Dubai roughly 534 points behind Eugenio Chacarra, with 2,000 available to the winner. Chacarra tied for 22nd at Yas Links. He has led since winning his third title of the season in India and now has four rounds left to hold off the four-time defending Race to Dubai champion.

WTGL: Los Angeles Wins the First Match

A Four-Footer Keeps New York Behind

The first WTGL match at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, produced a 3-1 Los Angeles Golf Club win over New York Golf Club. Rose Zhang hit the opening tee shot for New York. Los Angeles played Michelle Wie West, Gaby López and Alison Lee, while Linn Grant and Lydia Ko joined Zhang. The teams played nine holes of alternate shot with all three players, followed by six singles holes.

The teams tied 12 of 15 holes. Los Angeles got two points for winning the third after New York accepted its Hammer, which raised the value of the hole. New York took a point at the fifth and conceded the 11th after Los Angeles threw another Hammer. At the 14th, Lee holed a 4-footer for par to halve a hole worth two points. A New York win there would have tied the match.

Los Angeles made all seven putts it faced from 10 feet and in, excluding concessions. New York made three of seven. The opener aired on ESPN, and ION is scheduled to carry Tuesday’s match against Motor City Golf Club. The Los Angeles lineup calls for Wie West, Kiara Romero and Iwai, who can go from a 72-hole tournament in Japan to a 15-hole match in Florida in two days.

LPGA Tour: Sakuma Wins in Japan

Five Straight Birdies Change the Finish

At Taiheiyo Club Minori Course in Omitama, Japan, Sakuma began the final round of the TOTO Japan Classic three behind Iwai. She birdied five straight from Nos. 11-15 and closed with a bogey-free 64. Her 20-under 268 was four better than Iwai’s 272, with Erika Hara third at 15 under. Iwai shot 71 and still finished the week with a field-high 23 birdies. Sakuma hit all 18 greens in regulation on Sunday and went the entire tournament without a three-putt.

An LPGA Decision for 2027

Sakuma had won four times in Japan in 2026 before this week. The co-sanctioned event counts as her fifth JLPGA victory of the season and her first LPGA title. She’s 23, had finished fourth in this event a year ago and had already played four LPGA majors this season. The win made her eligible for LPGA membership, which she has deferred to 2027.

The Closing Thought

Brown finished ninth on a season-long points list to get his first card. Sakuma had won eight times in Japan and had already finished fourth at this event. The speed of their breakthroughs depends on where you start the clock. The rounds worth replaying from Sunday were 63 and 64. The rounds that prepared them for those two scores had been accumulating for months.