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Michael Brennan was supposed to be at a conference in Canada helping one of his sponsors. The plan was simple: hit a few shots in a simulator, offer swing tips, and host a closest-to-the-pin competition. Instead, Brennan got a call offering a sponsor’s exemption into the Bank of Utah Championship—and he made the most of it. In his first PGA Tour start as a professional, the 23-year-old and number-one player on PGA Tour Americas won by four shots over Rico Hoey.

As he made the turn on Sunday at the stunning Black Desert Resort, Brennan held a five-shot lead and was cruising at five-under for the day. But he’d been here before—and golf had taught him to take nothing for granted.

At last year’s PGA Tour Americas Championship, the former Wake Forest standout birdied the 11th hole to stretch his lead to five. A win would have vaulted him to fourth on the season-long points list, securing Korn Ferry Tour status for 2025 and an exemption to Final Stage of Q school. But Brennan, unaware of his position on the leaderboard, made what he called a “sloppy” bogey on 12.

Walking to the 13th tee at TPC Toronto’s North Course, he saw a leaderboard for the first time all day and realized the tournament was his to lose.

“It definitely got me out of my rhythm,” Brennan said on Any Given Monday last month. “I really thought I was tied for the lead—maybe one up, maybe two. But to see four caught me off guard a little bit. I got way ahead of myself at that point.”

The next two holes were nightmare fuel: Brennan made double bogey on 13 and a quintuple bogey on the par-3 14th. In just three holes, he lost seven shots. Though he finished with an eagle to tie for third, the damage was done. He’d thrown away the tournament—and his potential Korn Ferry Tour status.

“It was the toughest moment of my pro career so far,” he said. “That ate at me for a solid month.”

He didn’t make it through Second Stage of Q school later that year and returned to PGA Tour Americas for 2025, determined to make the most of the season.

“It’s been a really good progression in my career thus far,” Brennan said. “Learning those lessons—not getting ahead of yourself, not getting careless with a lead—I’d much rather learn them on the Americas Tour than on the Korn Ferry or PGA Tour.”

College golf had prepared him for 54-hole sprints packed into two days. Brennan had to learn to pace himself for the marathon of four day professional tournaments—and he was a quick study. In his first ten starts of the 2025 season, he finished inside the top-10 seven times. In August at Ambassador Golf Club in Windsor, Ontario, he finally broke through, winning by five with a closing 64.

“I did a much better job of staying present and not getting ahead of myself,” he said. “That experience (the debacle at the Americas Tour Championship) was great for my career, but it really, really sucked back then.”

Riding the momentum, Brennan won two of the next three events and added two top-five finishes to run away with the Fortinet Cup. The dominant stretch earned him a fully-exempt KFT card for 2026.

Playing alongside defending champion Matt McCarty and Rico Hoey on Sunday at the Bank of Utah Championship, Brennan took a comanding lead. Five birdies on the front nine gave him the same cushion he’d lost so abruptly a year earlier.

On the 314 yard par-4 14th, Brennan looked calm and confident, laughing with his playing partners as they waited for the green to clear. When it was his turn, he smoked a 3-wood over the jagged lava rocks and onto the putting surface—swinging like it was just a friendly Tuesday money game. Despite a bogey at the last, Brennan coasted to a final round 66 and a four shot victory.

The past year on the Americas Tour had paid off. Brennan had arrived.

For the win, he earned $1.08 million and a two-year PGA Tour exemption.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Brennan said. “Winning a golf tournament is one of the best feelings in the world. It takes a lot to play professional golf, and I have such a great team behind me.”

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Listen to Michael Brennan on Any Given Monday here.

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