Michael Brennan’s prescient Halloween costume, a Masters champ’s best week ever and a golf legend’s gritty comeback

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we are still flying high from an amazing Wake Forest weekend. No, I didn’t visit my alma mater, but I watched as the Demon Deacons pulled off a thrilling—and miraculous—buzzer-beating upset over SMU in football (OK, so as thrilling as a hideous 13-12 game can be) and then witnessed 2024 grad (Two decades after me . . . damn, I’m old . . . ) Michael Brennan dominate the Bank of Utah Championship for his maiden PGA Tour title. Of course, Michael had to make it (somewhat) interesting on the final hole by hitting into a lava pit. Classic Wake. But what a performance. Let’s talk about that and everything else going on in the world of golf.

WE’RE BUYING

Michael Brennan: This guy had my college text chain buzzing with his play—especially his driving during a four-shot win at Black Desert Resort. What an absolute monster:

Sure, the ball goes a bit farther out there. And sure, the fairways were as wide as football fields, but, still, Brennan gained the most strokes off the tee (7.6) of anyone on the PGA Tour for the entire year. And this is the only PGA Tour start he’s made in 2025 and his first ever as a pro. Pretty remarkable. So is the fact that he won on a sponsor’s exemption after only recently earning his Korn Ferry Tour card by dominating the PGA Tour Americas. Well, he’ll be skipping that developmental circuit now—something the KFT hilariously made note of:

Well played, KFT. And really well played, Michael. There’s no cheering from the press box, but . . . GO DEACS!

Yani Tseng: Remember her? As meteoric of a rise as Michael just made, Yani fell off the planet just as quickly. This was a young woman who was on her way to chasing GOAT status after winning five majors, by the time she was 22. And then, poof. She was gone just like that. Tseng lost her game and found the yips with the putter. But after years of trying to claw her way back to the top, improbably she did just that by putting lefthanded and winning the Ladies European Tour’s Wistron Ladies Open (Probably didn’t need that second “Ladies” in there. Just saying.) for her first victory in nearly 12 years.

What a comeback. What a GRIND. Someone should make a movie about her career.

Jordan Gumberg’s last shot: This American may have pulled off the most clutch golf shot of the year at the Korea Open. Needing at least a birdie on the final hole to retain his DP World Tour card for next year, Gumberg holed out an eagle to finish T-7 and keep his job. Have a look:

That was even more unbelievable than Wake Forest’s freshman kicker making that game-winning, 50-yard field goal that needed a reverse angle to see that the football actually went over the goal post. Go Deacs! Oh, and go Jordan! Hopefully, next year’s job hunt won’t be nearly as stressful.

Trevor Immelman’s week: The 2008 Masters champ had golfers everywhere drooling after posting photos of him and his son playing Augusta National. And Pine Valley. And Cypress Point. In the same freaking week.

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Talk about a trifecta. The duo checked off the top-three bucket list courses of a lifetime over the course of a few days. Again, this is a guy who won a green jacket and yet this might have been a better week. Go on, Trevor. Although, as you can see by that tweet, it appears that even guys with green jackets can get their wrists slapped by Augusta National.

WE’RE SELLING

Blowing a six-shot lead: Especially when a Masters invite is on the line. That’s what happened at the Asia Pacific Amateur, where 16-year-old Taisei Nagasaki couldn’t close the deal on Sunday at Emirates Golf Club. First, a shout-out to Thailand’s Pongsapak “Fifa” Laopakdee, who made an incredible back-nine rally and birdied his final five holes including what turned out to be a three-hole playoff:

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But back to Nagasaki, this one hurt. Bad. But the phenom couldn’t have handled it with anymore class, including this bow to the course in defeat.

We may not be seeing that young man at Augusta National next year, but we’re probably going to be seeing a whole lot more of him in the future.

Max Homa’s season: It was a tough year for the six-time PGA Tour winner and Golf Twitter King, and he noted as much on Instagram since he seems to have abdicated his Golf Twitter throne:

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That being said, there are a couple silver linings. As Max mentioned, he finished T-9 in Utah—his second top 10 of the year—by making an eagle on the final hole, so he’ll go into the offseason with a much better taste in his mouth. And ahead of the event, he also achieved Queen Bee status for the first time on the New York Time’s Spelling Bee:

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Well done, Max. I’m sure all your professors at Cal-Berkeley are very proud. Oh, and your coaches.

This fitness challenge: Kudos to this huge (crazy?) Jason Day fan for doing 20 pushups for every shot hit by his favorite player, but that would kill most people, including me:

Also, it’s nice Day gave him that hat in appreciation for the support, but maybe he could have given him some Malbon stuff as well. Unless, of course, the guy didn’t want that.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour fall season takes another break. And the DP World Tour is off as well. That gives all the guys the chance to really embrace Halloween this year (while I brace for the yearly barrage of trick-or-treaters) so I’m expecting to see some great costumes over the weekend! The LPGA rolls on with the Maybank Championship, but since there’s not much else going on, let’s talk a bit more about Michael Brennan. Actually, let’s talk to Michael Brennan, who joined this week’s episode of The Loop podcast to talk about his big breakthrough, fellow Demon Deacon Jeff Kirkpatrick, how he hits it so far and the econ professor we both had at Wake:

Random tournament fact: We’ll change it to a random Michael Brennan fact and point out that he used to dress up as PGA Tour golfers for Halloween, like in 2012 when he went as Rickie Fowler:

Aww. Well, he doesn’t have to dress up anymore. He’s an official PGA Tour member now. You love to see it.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—I will see a kid dressed up as Michael Brennan on Friday: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds

—I will see a kid dressed up as Rickie Fowler on Friday: 100-to-1 odds

—I will run out of Halloween candy on Friday: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Hey, at least the young man saw his Commodores get a big SEC win.

RANDOM TWEET OF THE WEEK

Well, it looks like Phil and I agree on one thing, at least.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Not sure what’s going on here, but Rory posing with all his Grand Slam trophies and green jacket at such a scenic spot is quite an image!

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

Opening night of the NBA featured this Michael Jordan story from this year’s Ryder Cup (Well, Ryder Cup rental house) that will give you goosebumps:

And here’s video of the shot:

Kinda wild that his Airness never touches a basketball anymore, but I saw him struggling to stand up after squatting at the Ryder Cup. Father Time is undefeated. And once you find golf, you don’t need any other sports anyway.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

A couple great family moments. First, the Brennans celebrating Michael’s breakthrough win:

Tracy Wilcox

And Billy Horschel’s son Axel Brooks watching—and imitating—his dad:

Nice swing! And nice name!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Oh my god, what happened?” —Jordan Gumberg after pulling off an all-time golf miracle. Nailed it, Jordan. That was wild.

THIS AND THAT

Scottie Scheffler launched the Randy Smith Tour for junior golfers through the North Texas PGA as a way to give back and to honor his longtime coach. Scottie is both No. 1 in the world and No. 1 in your hearts this week. . . . According to reports, Dustin Johnson is resigning with LIV Golf. This is only surprising to people who thought the tour would let those initial player contracts run out and disappear. . . . Kai Trump will make her LPGA debut next month at The Annika. That’s great for her, but pretty impressive for someone ranked 979th in the Universal Golf Ranking’s junior girls ranking. . . . And, finally, I finally got around to playing Mohansic, one of Westchester County’s six public courses, and it was a lot of fun. In particular, the par-3 13th, which immediately jumps to the top of the list for holes on those six munys: