2016-17 PGA stats: 1 Top 25 finishes, 7 events played, 6 cuts made, 71.320 scoring average.
Just one month into the new year and former Michigan State golfer Ryan Brehm has already competed in two PGA tournaments. After not participating in a PGA tournament since 2009, Brehm has played in seven since last November, and is the 247th best golfer in the world according to the official world golf ranking.
Brehm began his Spartan career in the 2004-05 season, the same year as Michigan State’s second Big Ten golf title, and was quick to show his potential. He became the first in school history to win Big Ten freshman of the year, and named to the all-Big Ten second team. In the next three years, Brehm led MSU to two more Big Ten titles, won five NCAA individual titles, was named to the all-Big Ten first team twice and broke multiple school records. He currently holds the school record for career stroke average (73.26) and the Big Ten record for the lowest individual score in a single round (64).
More recently, in 2014-15 Brehm competed in the Mackenzie Tour, the PGA Tour of Canada. In those two years, Brehm played in 23 events making the cut 17 times, placed in the top 10 six times, and placed second at the Great Waterway Classic in 2015.
In 2016, Brehm began competing regularly in the Web.com Tour. The top 25 players in this specific tour receive a PGA Tour card. Participating in 24 events, Brehm finished in the top 10 five times. However the most notable event of the season was the final event of the season. Brehm was 30th in the standings. After jumping out to an early lead eight strokes under par, he never looked back. Brehm finished first for the first time in his professional career, and that was good enough to boost himself up to fourth on the tour, securing a PGA Tour card, the first time a MSU golfer has ever done so.
“Well, I was nervous early. Then, surprisingly, I felt a calm midway through the round,” Brehm told Web.com Tour. “I started hitting a few good shots and was getting some looks. I managed to make a few here and there that kept the momentum rolling.”
In the past two weeks, Brehm has played in the Sony Open in Hawaii, and the CareerBuilder Challenge. In Hawaii he was able to shoot nine under par which was good enough to tie for 45th, out of 144 golfers at the event and gained 10 FedEx Cup points. At the CareerBuilder Challenge in California, Brehm finished tied for 75th out 156 competitors and gained another two FedEx Cup points.
Brehm is currently in 100th place in the FedEx Cup standings and is competing in the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego. Through the first round of play, Brehm is tied for ninth place with 68 strokes, which is four under par and three strokes behind Justin Rose, the current leader.
