Michigander Brett White Monday Qualifies for the Phoenix Open
By Tom Lang
Monday qualifiers are first steps to dreams coming true, and it’s no different for Caledonia native and EMU grad Brett White, a current Korn Ferry Tour member who Monday qualified into the 2023 Phoenix Open, one of the largest and best PGA Tour events each year.
White fired a 66 to earn his way into the field, and while that is a game changer for the 2020 Michigan Open winner to try sustaining life on the biggest stage for golf, five and a half years ago was a TRUE life-changing moment for White.
In the story below, which I first published in the Michigan Golf Journal (Nov. 2020), you can reminisce with us about just how far White has come to reach this point in life…
Brother-Sister Act:
Brett and Sarah White Win Pro Titles After His Major Illness Recovery
By Tom Lang
The first sign that something was wrong, Brett White’s throat started closing up.
Then came the extreme fatigue and zero energy.
Little did he know in the summer of 2017 that he would soon be spending a week in the hospital, fighting off an infection that would cause severe swelling of his brain – and because of it would soon afterwards require him to have to learn how to walk again.
Brett White was playing on the PGA Tour Latin America after taking 3rd place at its Q-School. That summer he returned to the U.S. and in July he took runner up when he lost in a playoff at the New Hampshire Open and felt body aches coming on – not all that unusual for any athlete. The next week he was competing in the Rhode Island state open.
“That’s when my throat started closing up,” Brett said. “I felt terrible and was sleeping all day. No energy. I was extremely sore and was just sleeping or golfing. I made the cut, but all during the final round I wasn’t even bending over to read a putt.”
Afterward he went directly to an urgent care and got a mono spot test and began driving home to Michigan; maybe not a great idea when you’re weary and exhausted – but being home always sounds good under those conditions. He arrived back in Caledonia near Grand Rapids on a Friday when the New England urgent care called and recommended he see his primary care physician right away, but it was now the weekend.
“That weekend I started throwing up and was miserable. It was all kind of setting in by then, the first week of August.
“My balance was getting worse… and I was still very tired. If I walked anywhere, I had to grab handrails or grab onto a table. I was sweating and they decided to get me to the hospital immediately.”
Brett admitted being scared because he was getting worse by the hour… “And that’s when my memory started getting fuzzy. My equilibrium was off ….and that’s when they discovered my brain was swelling.”
Good News Ahead:
We will stop there a moment to assure everyone that while Brett had a tough battle and a long recovery, he turned out fine. He eventually, slowly and a little tentatively at the time, returned to competitive golf in April of 2018. He then went on to win the Nevada Open in Nov. last year. He will be there to defend the title this month – and heads into the event after winning our 2020 Michigan Open in September, leading wire to wire at The Bear at Grand Traverse Resort and finishing 12-under par.
“When I was in the hospital, I didn’t think this was possible,” he said when accepting the Michigan Open trophy. “But when I got out, I knew I wanted to golf again.”
Also good news this summer, his younger sister, Sarah, turned pro in 2020 and qualified into the LPGA Symetra Tour’s Founders Tribute in Arizona, and had Brett on her bag. It was her first Symetra event, and she didn’t mess around. She WON the tournament with a birdie putt on the 72nd hole, defeating, ironically, Sophia Popov – who the very next week shocked the world by winning the Women’s British Open in her first-ever major event.
Sarah White immediately accepted an invitation to join the Symetra Tour, instantly shifting all her 2020-21 plans with her card secured through the 2021 season, even though that money won doesn’t count toward her points this season.
“It’s an amazing opportunity I gave myself and my whole world (turned around),” she said back in August. “Within a few days span I won my first pro event, and within the hour I had to accept membership (in the Symetra Tour) if I was to play in the next event (in California). So, I just dove right into full blown traveling on-Tour, and I’ll be in every event now with Category B status, sort of like their winner’s circle,” the rookie pro added.
Sarah White grew up in Caledonia playing golf and boys ice hockey – purposely following in her brother’s footsteps in both sports, she admitted recently. She said playing 14 years of hockey competing alongside the boys (eventually on the East Kentwood High team) was a catalyst for her golf career – which as an amateur included winning the team and individual golf state championship at East Kentwood, before getting a full ride scholarship at Western Michigan and closing out her college career at Texas State when the WMU coach moved to Ohio State.
“When I’m not playing golf well, I grind really well, I think because of playing boys hockey and getting looks like ‘who is this girl in the net?’ So, just having that mentality of the competitiveness and the grind of hockey and giving of 100 percent. I think that’s really helped me.”
She added that playing goalie in her teen years developed balance, and the shifting back and forth practiced the natural motion for golf of posting from one side of your body to the next and turning her hips.
Back at the Hospital:
Brett White was hospitalized for one week that August of ‘17, then once the virus he had (viral encephalitis secondary to Epstein Barr Virus infection with complications of ataxia) was being treated and his brain swelling subsided, he was transferred for rehabilitation at Mary Free Bed in Grand Rapids.
“All my limbs moved, but once I got up to walk, it was like all new to me,” Brett said. “I was learning how to walk again like a toddler. I had to re-learn how my arms were supposed to move. Nothing was natural. If I closed my eyes, I’d fall over.”
When the time came for Sarah to head back to her junior season at Texas State, Brett was still in the hospital.
“Brett wouldn’t have wanted me to (stay in Grand Rapids) and put golf on hold,” she said. “He said, ‘go back to school, I’ll be fine.’ But it was scary. The doctors kind of figured it out by then but you never know what might happen again.”
After two weeks at Mary Free Bed the therapists agreed going to the golf course would be good for Brett’s rehabilitation, too.
“But just chipping balls for 30 minutes felt like I was running two miles. It was draining. Everything took way more out of me.”
Brett began trying more activities in and out of golf to return to full strength.
“I’m super proud of him to be able to get back to where he was (before) in golf, to be able to win again, twice now,” Sarah added. “He’s helped me a lot with the mentality of not taking things (in golf) too seriously.”
Sarah mirrored almost everything Brett did growing up in sports, dominating in the Meijer Junior Tour, playing hockey left-handed (but golf right-handed), taking on slap shots from Brett in the family basement, which she noted with a little sisterly irritation in her voice.
“Growing up, I mostly played against older girls, I realized I could do it and I always wanted to be a pro golfer,” Sarah said. “As a kid I joked I wanted to be in the NHL in the winter and the LPGA in the summer but knew I couldn’t do that. But in my 8th grade scrap book it says, ‘be on the LPGA Tour.’ So, I think I have known (pro golf was for me) for a long time. Maybe I didn’t know exactly how to get there, but it was the dream and goal, and go figure it out along the way.”
Seems like both Whites have figured out a lot of things – family ties run deep, don’t take life and health for granted, and perseverance wins professional golf tournaments.
