EVINS, Utah — Michael Brennan is as dominant in the Black Desert as he is on the PGA Tour of the Americas. He shot a 5-under 66 on Sunday to win the Bank of Utah Championship by four strokes and become a PGA Tour champion on a sponsor’s exemption.
Brennan, making his PGA Tour debut as a pro, became the first player to receive a sponsor exemption since Nick Dunlap entered the American Express as an amateur in January 2024.
The win means the 23-year-old Brennan, who played at Wake Forest, will skip the Korn Ferry Tour next year and go straight to the majors. He received a two-year exemption from the PGA Tour, as well as a spot in the PGA Championship and a $20 million RBC Heritage bonus.
Brennan left the South American leg of the PGA Tour America’s Tour ranked No. 451 in the world. But he dominated in Canada (one win in Minnesota), notching three wins in four starts and eight top-10 finishes in 10 starts.
Winning the Fortinet Cup Season Points event earned him a fully exempt Korn Ferry Tour card. Now, he will jump straight into the PGA Tour, where he will compete alongside Scottie Scheffler and other top players in golf.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Brennan said. “Winning a golf tournament is one of the best feelings in the world. Playing professional golf takes a lot of hard work and I have such a great team behind me.”
This is not the end of a perfect week. He hit his second shot into a deep lava-strewn pit, deftly took a penalty shot from an unplayable lie, and ended up with a bogey. He finished at 22-under 262, four strokes ahead of Rico Hoy (67).
Brennan is a combination of power and grace at Black Desert Resort, a picturesque Tom Weiskopf design surrounded by red rock cliffs and black lava.
Starting the final round with a three-shot lead, Brennan birdied three of the first five holes to extend his lead to five shots and he was never seriously challenged.
Hoy got within three after a two-shot hole on the 10th hole – a rare bogey for Brennan and Hoy with birdies. But then Brennan hit a 411-yard shot from the side of the 12th green for birdie. He hit his 3-wood tee shot on the par-4 14th green for a two-putt birdie that put everyone in trouble.
Winning on the FedExCup fall schedule no longer comes with an invitation to the Masters, but now Brennan is within range. That high summer in Canada, and Sunday’s win, propelled him into the top 50 in the world.
He is available for the remaining three PGA Tour events. The top 50 players in the world at the end of the year will travel to Augusta National.
Hoy’s chances all but ended when he missed a 5-foot birdie putt on No. 13 to get within two shots, and he missed a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 14, leaving him four shots behind. Even so, he moved from No. 91 to No. 61 in the FedExCup rankings, ensuring a spot in 2026.
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (68) and defending champion Matt McCarty (70) were in the big group and tied for third at 16 under, 268. That moved Olson up 19 spots to No. 97 in a bid to stay intact next year.
Brennan said his caddy, Jeff Kirkpatrick, told him during a hot summer run that they would bypass the Korn Ferry Tour and go straight to the PGA Tour.
“I can’t believe he’s right,” Brennan said with a laugh.
