Michigander Ryan Brehm Scores First PGA Tour Victory
Celebrates with wife and caddy, Chelsey
By Tom Lang
A simple schedule change changed the course of Ryan Brehm’s golf career.
The Mt. Pleasant native and Traverse City resident changed course from his fully-exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour for one week, and now he’s got a full-time PGA Tour card after Sunday’s win at the Puerto Rico Open, the opposite-field event played at Grand Reserve Golf Club.
Brehm, a three-time Michigan Open winner who set many golf records at Michigan State, won the PGA Tour tournament March 3-6 by six strokes at 20-under par. He made only one bogey all week and fired 5-under par on Sunday, including birdies on holes 9, 10 and 11 to run away from the pack chasing him.
He’s now in Jacksonville, Florida, preparing to tee it up in THE PLAYERS Championship (March 10-13), arguably the best field in the world that many refer to as golf’s ‘fifth major.’
The story setting in Puerto Rico was one that some people describe as all or nothing.
Brehm had one last exemption to use – a minor medical because he had to withdraw from an event due to Covid-19 from his 2020-21 PGA Tour card year.
Yet a three-week gap opened up in the Korn Ferry Tour and he decided to go use it in Puerto Rico at a course he enjoys. With a win or a solo second place and he’d regain his card. Anything less and he’d return to the Korn Ferry schedule. But he said multiple times, including on TV at the 18th green, that he felt no pressure in that situation.
“I agree it did make for a great story, me and my wife out there walking and hitting golf shots,” he said during a private phone interview with me and Bill Hobson as the Brehm’s were ready to board the airplane Monday, from San Juan to Jacksonville, Fla. “You just don’t see that very often in pro golf. We just talked a lot about really zoning in on the process and trying to fine tune that.
“Starting out the year on the Korn Ferry Tour (having played in four 2022 events) really prepared us for this moment,” he continued. “We just try to keep improving, every time, every week, every day – and each week it got a little bit better and a little better and then it culminated where everything just was working together. A darn good performance, but I am a little bummed I did make that one bogey (round 3) because it would have been cool to say that we went bogey-free for all 72 holes, but 71 holes is pretty darn good. And you’re going to do well if you do that anywhere you play.”
No one would blame the mid-30s married couple if they had freaked out knowing what was on the line with Tour status, extra endorsement dollars and the PGA Tour players pension fund Ryan will now be eligible for after completing five-plus seasons on Tour in 2024 – but by all appearances they didn’t flinch.
“There were more butterflies before we teed off,” Chelsey said in describing the final round. “Once we got out there it was eerily calm for both of us. We had a job to do, and we knew the battle was against the golf course.
“Our lives changed (Sunday) but they didn’t at the same time,” she added. “It’s amazing to be a PGA Tour winner; that’s what we do. But at the same time, we’re Chelsey and Ryan Brehm and we still have our family, and our lives and it is what it is.”
Ryan added: “But life-changing things are like what’s happening in Ukraine right now, losing loved ones (like his mother, Debbie, to cancer a little over two years ago). Those are the real-life changing things. This is what we do, this is our profession, and we kind of take that mindset with us.”
While the weather in Puerto Rico was mostly sunny and warm, a squall rolled in soon after Brehm made three consecutive birdies at 9, 10 and 11. Leave it to a Michigander to not snap under conditions of 30-40 mph winds and a hard rain. Brehm parred the two holes during the squall while those chasing him made bogeys, cementing the win.
“It got downright nasty; I mean it was crazy,” Brehm said. “Just a weird weather day. We would catch those squalls with the wind blowing 40 mph and raining like a monsoon. Ten minutes later it would be sunny, and you didn’t even know it rained. You could see the squalls coming. You’d make a putt and go running to the umbrella and the bag and make sure everything is hunkered down.
“I do think there’s more of a grinder mentality coming from the Midwest and growing up golfing in Michigan. I think any Michigan golfer can relate to that. In the springtime you don’t get the best weather but you’re so excited to get out and play.”
No doubt Brehm’s first PGA Tour win and the days and weeks to ensue have been and will continue to be a whirlwind. But Ryan has his stable force of wife Chelsey helping guide him.
“Honestly, I’m a little bit of a basket case right now,” Chelsey Brehm said while boarding the plane. “I haven’t booked any accommodations. I haven’t even looked at the PGA Tour schedule. That’s very unlike me. I’m usually 90 days out, I have everything planned, I have rental cars in place and hotels.
“The first call I made off the golf course Sunday was to Michelle at our agency. I never ask her for anything, but (this time) I said, ‘Michelle, I need you.’ Luckily, they had our backs and were doing some pre-planning stuff that we were too nervous to do for maybe jinxing anything or whatever it might be.”
But she is sure that her caddy days are over, at least as a regular gig.
“I have a lot of things to do this week, and carrying the bag is not going to be one of them,” she said with a laugh. “There’s a lot of things that go into in a week (on Tour) and I think that’s the way I can support Ryan the most in getting our next win over the next couple years with the exemptions and making the most of it.”
Chelsey said caddying as a couple is not for everybody.
“We have a lot of guys that think it’s awesome, and a lot of guys are like, ‘nope, no chance in hell would I do that,’” Chelsey giggled. “But it worked for us, and I thought it was very cool.”
And what will be her caddy cut of the winnings?
“It’s called joint checking.”
