DETROIT — Miles Russell’s pants don’t fit. He didn’t want to show off his ankles during Thursday’s first round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. It’s just that the most recently measured seams no longer apply. It wasn’t long before his growth spurted and he is now 5 feet 7 inches, but he still has to wear trousers that fit him at 5-6 inches. Meanwhile, his waist is almost non-existent. At 120 pounds, he wears a 28-inch waist with the “belt bent.”
So on Thursday, Russell was walking around the Detroit Golf Club, his ankles flashing with every step he took.
The same goes for life at 15 years old.
Russell made his PGA Tour debut at Rocket Mortgage and shot a 2-over 74. Born in 2009, he signed autographs for 7-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 15-year-olds and several adults. He took every swing with the PGA Tour live cameras a few feet behind him. He held press conferences the day before and after the first round. He played from a tee that was 7,370 yards long. He played in a field with 10 players ranked in the top 50 in the world.
And the strangest thing about all of this?
Oddly enough, it felt normal.
This year, two 16-year-olds have already qualified for the PGA Tour: Chris Kim at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and Blade Brown at the Myrtle Beach Classic. Last year, 15-year-old Oliver Betschart survived the 54-hole qualifying round to qualify for the Bermuda Championship, becoming the youngest player to play in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event in nearly a decade. He was three months younger than Russell is now.
15-year-old Miles Russell achieves first birdie on tour 🤩 pic.twitter.com/5tLfnf5HuW
— PGA Tour (@PGATOUR) June 27, 2024
Now it’s Russell from Rocket Mortgage. In April, he became the youngest player in development tour history when he shot 68 and 66 at the LECOM Suncoast Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour. Headlines followed. Then Russell shot 70 and 66 to finish the T20. The winner, Tim Wything, was 11 years older.
Tournament organizers at Rocket Mortgage reached out to Russell after his performance at the Suncoast Classic to capitalize on the story. Tournaments like the Rockets desperately need attention. Any kind of attention can do it. Detroit is short on celebrity, so a compelling storyline is necessary. The No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5 amateurs in the world, Jackson Koivun, Benjamin James and Luke Clanton, are all in the field this year. Clanton is making his PGA Tour debut, as is Neal Shipley, a recent Masters and U.S. Open low-amateur who turned pro. When Shipley left the course Thursday, he was told he had a spot in another PGA Tour event, the John Deere Classic, next week.
But all of those names were people who were at least attending college or had graduated from college.
Russell doesn’t actually go to school, but he just finished his freshman year of high school. Originally from Jacksonville Beach, Florida, he started playing when he was 2, broke par in 6, and has come a long way since then. He is homeschooled and already owns a small business. He has an agent and has a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with TaylorMade and Nike.
Because the number 15 sounds so strange, some people tend to view Russell as a novelty.
In fact, this is becoming increasingly rare.
Russell didn’t come to Detroit looking like a kid trying to high-five his hero.
On Thursday, one of Russell’s playing partners, Rico Hoy, was on the practice green after a round and still looking a bit incredulous. Now 28 years old, he was trying to break 80 at Russell’s age. Going into the first round, he figured he and Pierceson Cudi, a 24-year-old PGA Tour rookie with three wins at Korn Ferry, would have to play light and easy for the young star. Then they met him.
“I’m sure as a 15-year-old I would be pretty nervous here, so we tried to make it easy for him and make him feel comfortable, but really, I don’t even know how much he needed that.” Hoi said. “He’s been great. His short game is really good. He’s got a lot of length for his size. His game is really good and he’s really calm.”
Russell shot 74 in his first PGA Tour round on Thursday. (Raj Mehta/Getty Images)
Some people would be inherently uncomfortable with young, megawatt talent playing among professional athletes in any sport. But that never stopped it from happening. And golf appears to be getting more vibrant and younger. It’s reasonable to expect someone to surpass Michelle Wie West soon as the youngest player ever on the PGA Tour. She was 14 years, 3 months and 7 days old when she competed in the 2004 Sony Open.
What’s most striking isn’t age, but how narrow the gap is between children and professionals. Russell is not a hardened bomber. Instead, he was resilient and worked with his coach, former Korn Ferry player Ramon Bascansa, to create a swing that generated enough clubhead speed to keep pace with the pros. He averaged 292 yards off the tee on Thursday, tied for 78th in the 156-player field.
But that doesn’t mean everything around him isn’t still inappropriate. He’s technically not old enough to use the men’s locker room at the Detroit Golf Club. But this week, there’s an exception. He can’t drive, rent a car or check into a hotel alone. One of the group behind Russell, 36-year-old Rafael Campos, puffed on a few cigarettes as he played his round. Russell can’t legally live with this vice for the next three years.
Afterwards, Russell agreed to questions about experience, but was really only interested in golf. He talked about unforced errors and a few missed puts. He said watching Cudi and Hoy taught him how tour pros “hang on hard and hit a few unders.” He said, of course, he was nervous going into the round. What is your score out of 10? “I’d probably give it a 7.” But I ignored the feeling of being intimidated.
Russell’s voice was soft and he clearly still seemed a little disgruntled. He missed a three-foot putter on the final hole, which resulted in a bogey.
“We live, we learn, and we move on.” He sounded like someone who was not only used to playing on tour, but almost expected to be.
Maybe, for better or worse, it’s not so crazy anymore.
(Photo above: Raj Mehta / Getty Images)
