[Photo: David Jensen]
Beau Hossler drew first blood on Sunday. After saving par from outside 20 feet on the first hole, Hossler birdied the par-3 third and eagled the par-5 fifth to reach 19 under. But golf is about who leads after all the holes are finished. And even though Hossler played the front nine in two under, it was his playing partner, and 54-hole co-leader, Michael Brennan, who seized control with five consecutive birdies from the fourth through eighth holes and never looked back.
That’s not to say Brennan waltzed to his second PGA Tour win, as he got a bit loose off the tee on the back nine, pulling tee shots on the 15th and 17th holes into the left rough, adding a layer of unwanted stress en route to his second PGA Tour victory. On the 17th, Brennan caught an unusual break as his tee shot settled into a divot left by Christiaan Bezuidenhout roughly three hours earlier. From there, he hacked out of the four-inch rough with his 50-degree Titleist Vokey Design SM11 wedge to 30 feet, two-putted from there, and all but secured the win.
Brennan’s back-nine shakiness off the tee was a bit of an aberration; he led the field in strokes gained/off the tee on the week, mainly with his nine-degree Titleist GT3 driver. He mentioned after Saturday’s round that he’d worked on his driving last Sunday at the Rocket Classic in Detroit with his coach, Adam Harrell.
“He … just noticed my swing was getting really long with drive and was kind of having some trouble syncing things up. So just been an emphasis earlier this week on trying to shorten up the swing a little bit. I feel like my hands kind of get a little more in front of me on the way down and been able to hit the driver really well,” Brennan said.
Safe to say the practice paid off, and in more ways than one. Entering the week, Brennan needed at worst a three-way tie for second to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time. He accomplished that goal by relying on his Titleist Scotty Cameron GOLO 6 tour prototype putter when his game off the tee got a bit wild, finishing second in strokes gained/putting and added an exclamation point with a 13-foot birdie putt on the final hole to go 63, 64 on the weekend to seal the deal.
And if the $1.53 million payday and aforementioned FedEx Cup Playoffs appearance weren’t enough, as he realised after his hug with his mom on the 72nd hole, “We’re going to the Masters!”
What Michael Brennan had in the bag at the 2026 Wyndham Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Titleist GT3 (True Temper HZRDUS Smoke Blue RDX 70 TX), 9 degrees
3-wood: Titleist GTS prototype fairway, 15 degrees
7-wood: Titleist GTS3, 21 degrees
Irons: (4-5) Titleist T100; (6-9) Titleist 620 CB
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 (46, 50, 54, 60 degrees)
Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron GOLO 6 tour prototype
