Deacon Sports Xtra: Fast Start
5/19/2021 12:25:00 PM | Men's Golf
Michael Brennan makes quick transition to collegiate golf by winning two tournaments early in his freshman year.
In theory, Michael Brennan was as prepared for college golf as any first-year player could be. In practice, Brennan has proven it to be true as he showed this spring by becoming the first Wake Forest freshman to ever win back-to-back tournaments.
The young man from Leesburg, Va., has been hitting balls ever since he could hold a club, and although he grew up to be a multi-sport athlete, golf was the sport that stuck. Long days playing rounds with friends and family at River Creek Country Club, sessions honing his game with his golf coach Adam Harrell, and junior tournaments were the norm for Brennan as he grew up playing the sport he says he has always loved the most.
"My golf coach at home and I have been working together since I was about 12 years old," he said. "We have a really nice relationship, and I knew he was always going to be there. Golf-wise, I didn't think it was going to be a super big adjustment. From my experience, the biggest adjustment has been dealing with school and golf at the same time – like working on school at tournaments."
Welcome to the student-athlete challenge that is Wake Forest.
"My mom (Shannon) plays golf, and my dad (also named Michael) plays golf," Brennan said. "My dad was a pretty good amateur player in the state of Virginia, so he knew a lot of the basics and fundamentals, and he taught me good fundamentals before I started playing tournaments at about the age of 10. We lived about 15 minutes away from the River Creek Country Club. I was there all the time. I spent many, many days from early in the morning to late in the evening playing with my friends and family. My brother Sean plays golf, too."
Brennan said that he played "a bunch of sports" when he was a kid.
"My parents were big on that to make sure I tried everything, so I played football, basketball, baseball, soccer and lacrosse," he said. "I played basketball all through high school up through my junior year, but basketball and golf stuck with me the longest, and now it's just golf. When I was a little kid, my goal was to become a professional golfer. I loved to play in junior tournaments, playing throughout middle school and high school, and now at Wake Forest."
Brennan came to Wake Forest with a list of accolades. He finished tied for 11th in stroke play at the 2020 U.S. Amateur, won the Middle Atlantic Amateur in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and was the 2019 Virginia State Amateur Champion.
Jerry Haas, Wake Forest's men's golf coach, said that it probably didn't show in the rankings but that he thought this freshman class, including Brennan, was the best in the country.
"Michael is always the first one on the range after getting home at midnight, and he burns the candle pretty hard," Haas said. "He works out five times a week. He's a wonderful student. He really wants it and goes about it in a very professional manner, which is great to see as a coach. In this game, everybody gets it differently. Some guys are a little more focused mentally at this age, and then others don't get good at it until they're 28 or 29. Others are great at 15 or 16, and that's the best they ever were. So it's a hard sport to recruit.
"It's a pretty simple formula. If you are a pretty good driver of the ball, which Michael is, and you are good at chipping and putting, you're always going to be around par and have a chance to shoot five or six-under. That's where Michael is right now. He was well taught by Adam Harrell up in Virginia, and he's never far off – always one little setup move or one little ball position away from playing great golf."
But the shift to playing team golf at Wake Forest was a mental adjustment Brennan had to make.
"My first tournament this spring (the Seminole Invitational), I was a little more nervous because I felt a little added pressure to represent the team," Brennan said. "With junior golf, it was just me, but if I played poorly it reflected on the team as well. That took a little bit to get over, but once I realized everybody was trying to play their best and that nobody was going to hold it against me if I played badly, it just frees you up to play better golf."
It wasn't a lengthy transition. He shot a team-low 64 (-7) in the second round of the Arizona Intercollegiate in the second event of 2021. In his first four collegiate starts, he finished tied for 5th, tied for 2nd and then posted back-to-back individual titles. The Deacon freshman won the Kiawah Invitational posting a score of 16-under par by shooting three straight sub-70 rounds.
Brennan started the Kiawah tournament with an opening-round score of 67 and turned in a field-low 65 on the final day – producing a tournament-best 19 birdies. Brennan earned ACC Golfer of the Month honors for February after his first title. He won a second consecutive tournament at the Wake Forest Invitational at Pinehurst No. 2 with a score of 5-under par, posting rounds of 71, 66 and 68.
Wake Forest won the team titles for both tournaments. Through those four events, Brennan led the team with a 68.83 stroke average. Following his victory at the Wake Forest Invitational, Brennan was named the men's college golfer of the week by Golf Week. Entering the ACC Tournament, Brennan ranked second on the team in stroke average behind Alex Fitzpatrick.
"The team chemistry is very good, and I feel like success breeds success," Haas said. "We have been on a nice roll since 2016, and some of these guys who are fifth-year seniors are part of this, but the team has won 22 times in the last five and one-half years. Unfortunately, we missed a spring with a very nice team last year and lost the fall, but I think you can see how hungry they are when we went out to the first tournament of this spring and tied with Florida State. Then we finished second in Arizona in a tournament we felt we could have won. Then we win at Kiawah and win at Pinehurst and we're off to a great start.
"We have a nice mix with senior Eric Bae, we have true senior Parker Gillam, a junior in Alex Fitzpatrick and a sophomore in Mark Power, and two freshmen with BJ Rogillio and Michael. Last year we had eight different players that were our low man for the tournament. That just shows you the depth and that anybody in the lineup could be the low guy for the week. And that's a guy with a chance to win the tournament. Everybody has great ones and twos, but where you start to notice the difference is down the line at your threes, fours and fives."
In March, Brennan was named to the Spring 2021 Haskins Award presented by the Stifel Watch List. The award is presented annually to the most outstanding men's collegiate golfer as voted on by peers, coaches and golf media.
"I feel like my game has had a pretty good progression throughout high school and into my first year of college, and I hope to continue that," Brennan said. "And we're pretty excited about the postseason."
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The young man from Leesburg, Va., has been hitting balls ever since he could hold a club, and although he grew up to be a multi-sport athlete, golf was the sport that stuck. Long days playing rounds with friends and family at River Creek Country Club, sessions honing his game with his golf coach Adam Harrell, and junior tournaments were the norm for Brennan as he grew up playing the sport he says he has always loved the most.
"My golf coach at home and I have been working together since I was about 12 years old," he said. "We have a really nice relationship, and I knew he was always going to be there. Golf-wise, I didn't think it was going to be a super big adjustment. From my experience, the biggest adjustment has been dealing with school and golf at the same time – like working on school at tournaments."
Welcome to the student-athlete challenge that is Wake Forest.
"My mom (Shannon) plays golf, and my dad (also named Michael) plays golf," Brennan said. "My dad was a pretty good amateur player in the state of Virginia, so he knew a lot of the basics and fundamentals, and he taught me good fundamentals before I started playing tournaments at about the age of 10. We lived about 15 minutes away from the River Creek Country Club. I was there all the time. I spent many, many days from early in the morning to late in the evening playing with my friends and family. My brother Sean plays golf, too."
Brennan said that he played "a bunch of sports" when he was a kid.
"My parents were big on that to make sure I tried everything, so I played football, basketball, baseball, soccer and lacrosse," he said. "I played basketball all through high school up through my junior year, but basketball and golf stuck with me the longest, and now it's just golf. When I was a little kid, my goal was to become a professional golfer. I loved to play in junior tournaments, playing throughout middle school and high school, and now at Wake Forest."
Brennan came to Wake Forest with a list of accolades. He finished tied for 11th in stroke play at the 2020 U.S. Amateur, won the Middle Atlantic Amateur in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and was the 2019 Virginia State Amateur Champion.
Jerry Haas, Wake Forest's men's golf coach, said that it probably didn't show in the rankings but that he thought this freshman class, including Brennan, was the best in the country.
"Michael is always the first one on the range after getting home at midnight, and he burns the candle pretty hard," Haas said. "He works out five times a week. He's a wonderful student. He really wants it and goes about it in a very professional manner, which is great to see as a coach. In this game, everybody gets it differently. Some guys are a little more focused mentally at this age, and then others don't get good at it until they're 28 or 29. Others are great at 15 or 16, and that's the best they ever were. So it's a hard sport to recruit.
"It's a pretty simple formula. If you are a pretty good driver of the ball, which Michael is, and you are good at chipping and putting, you're always going to be around par and have a chance to shoot five or six-under. That's where Michael is right now. He was well taught by Adam Harrell up in Virginia, and he's never far off – always one little setup move or one little ball position away from playing great golf."
But the shift to playing team golf at Wake Forest was a mental adjustment Brennan had to make.
"My first tournament this spring (the Seminole Invitational), I was a little more nervous because I felt a little added pressure to represent the team," Brennan said. "With junior golf, it was just me, but if I played poorly it reflected on the team as well. That took a little bit to get over, but once I realized everybody was trying to play their best and that nobody was going to hold it against me if I played badly, it just frees you up to play better golf."
It wasn't a lengthy transition. He shot a team-low 64 (-7) in the second round of the Arizona Intercollegiate in the second event of 2021. In his first four collegiate starts, he finished tied for 5th, tied for 2nd and then posted back-to-back individual titles. The Deacon freshman won the Kiawah Invitational posting a score of 16-under par by shooting three straight sub-70 rounds.
Brennan started the Kiawah tournament with an opening-round score of 67 and turned in a field-low 65 on the final day – producing a tournament-best 19 birdies. Brennan earned ACC Golfer of the Month honors for February after his first title. He won a second consecutive tournament at the Wake Forest Invitational at Pinehurst No. 2 with a score of 5-under par, posting rounds of 71, 66 and 68.
Wake Forest won the team titles for both tournaments. Through those four events, Brennan led the team with a 68.83 stroke average. Following his victory at the Wake Forest Invitational, Brennan was named the men's college golfer of the week by Golf Week. Entering the ACC Tournament, Brennan ranked second on the team in stroke average behind Alex Fitzpatrick.
"The team chemistry is very good, and I feel like success breeds success," Haas said. "We have been on a nice roll since 2016, and some of these guys who are fifth-year seniors are part of this, but the team has won 22 times in the last five and one-half years. Unfortunately, we missed a spring with a very nice team last year and lost the fall, but I think you can see how hungry they are when we went out to the first tournament of this spring and tied with Florida State. Then we finished second in Arizona in a tournament we felt we could have won. Then we win at Kiawah and win at Pinehurst and we're off to a great start.
"We have a nice mix with senior Eric Bae, we have true senior Parker Gillam, a junior in Alex Fitzpatrick and a sophomore in Mark Power, and two freshmen with BJ Rogillio and Michael. Last year we had eight different players that were our low man for the tournament. That just shows you the depth and that anybody in the lineup could be the low guy for the week. And that's a guy with a chance to win the tournament. Everybody has great ones and twos, but where you start to notice the difference is down the line at your threes, fours and fives."
In March, Brennan was named to the Spring 2021 Haskins Award presented by the Stifel Watch List. The award is presented annually to the most outstanding men's collegiate golfer as voted on by peers, coaches and golf media.
"I feel like my game has had a pretty good progression throughout high school and into my first year of college, and I hope to continue that," Brennan said. "And we're pretty excited about the postseason."
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