Michiganders on the Professional Tours
So local fans can follow along, we provide a synopsis of golfers from Michigan who are eligible for playing on the main professional tours in 2023:
Brian Stuard, PGA Tour
The Jackson native has been Michigan’s ongoing rep on the PGA Tour for several years, having won the 2016 Zurich Classic and earning a trip to the 2017 Masters, where he made the cut. He’s been a regular on the PGA Tour since the 2013 season – and while the 2022 season was a tough one (highest finish was T12) he retained his full-time PGA Tour status for 2023 with a high finish in the Korn Ferry Tour finals.
He is a product of Napoleon High School and Oakland University, where he was Horizon League Player of the Year in 2005. He has eclipsed $12.5 million in PGA Tour career earnings.
Ryan Brehm, PGA Tour
The Mt. Pleasant native and MSU grad, who led the Spartans to three Big Ten titles, won the Puerto Rico Open in April, 2022 on the PGA Tour to earn his full-time card through the end of the 2024 season. He has two additional career wins on the Korn Ferry Tour, and he won three Michigan Open titles from 2009-14. Here early in the 2022-23 season, Brehm averages 303.4 yards off the tee.
In high school he won three Div. 2 state championships and was voted Mr. Golf in 2003. At MSU he won five individual titles and was Big Ten Championship individual runner up three times.
Joey Garber, Korn Ferry Tour
The Petosky native, who grew up skiing and playing golf daily at Boyne Resort, spent the 2019-20 season full time on the PGA Tour, but has since dropped back to the Korn Ferry Tour where his history includes winning the Rex Hospital Open in 2018. Last season he finished No. 26 on the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Points List, missing the last PGA TOUR card available for 2023 by just 4.5 points.
Garber’s Michigan history includes winning both the Michigan Amateur and the Junior Amateur in 2010, the summer after high school. He was also Michigan high school’s Mr. Golf his junior and senior seasons.
Alex Scott, Korn Ferry Tour
The Traverse City native who played at Grand Valley State University has been elevated from the PGA Tour Latinoamerica (where he still maintains playing privileges) thanks to a great showing in the end of season Korn Ferry’s additional qualifying tournament, has qualified for the 2023 season.
As an amateur he won the GAM Championship in 2017 and added the Michigan PGA’s 2018 Tournament of Champions at Boyne Mountain title. At Grand Valley he earned GLIAC Player of the Year, twice.
Willie Mack, Korn Ferry Tour
In 2011 at Boyne Highlands, Mack, a Flint native, became the first African-American to win the Michigan Amateur. He has since gone on to win more than 70 mini tour events as he built a pro tour resume. This will be his first opportunity to play fulltime on the top development tour. He has five PGA Tour starts, and in July 2021 made his first PGA Tour cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, followed by making another weekend in his next start at the John Deere Classic.
Mack has been a staple and winner on the Advocates Pro Golf Association (APGA), a circuit formed to give minorities better opportunities to play at the professional level.
Brett White, Korn Ferry Tour
White won the 2020 Michigan Open wire-to-wire after taking the 2019 Open title in Nevada. Both victories came after he made headlines from getting a debilitating brain infection a couple years earlier that left him in a wheelchair and learning how to walk again.
This is the Eastern Michigan grad’s second year on the Korn Ferry Tour. He has also played on the PGA Tour’s of Canada and Latinoamerica.
James Piot, LIV Golf
All indications are that Canton native James Piot, alongside Escanaba’s Dan Ellis as caddy, will play for a second season with LIV Golf. Piot made huge headlines by becoming the first Michigan native ever to win the U.S. Amateur with a solid victory in 2021. It got him into The Masters in 2022, plus The Memorial and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He had several more PGA Tour exemption invitations, including the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic, but he chose to join LIV instead.
Valery Plata (MSU), LPGA Tour
Plata is a native of the country of Colombia and became one of the best players in MSU Women’s golf history. She would have been college eligible for this coming spring’s season but gave up her amateur status when playing in the LPGA Q-School 8-round tournament. She tied for third place to earn her full time 2023 LPGA Tour card. Seven of her eight rounds were in the 60s, with a low of 66 on the second day. She finished at 25-under par.
Plata reached the semifinals of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur and has played in the Meijer LPGA Classic twice as an amateur, plus the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Liz Nagel, LPGA Tour
The DeWitt native and MSU grad will split her time in 2023 on the LPGA Tour and EPSON Tour with partial status on both. In 2022 she received from the LPGA Tour the Heather Farr Perseverance Award, which honors an LPGA player who through her hard work and efforts, has demonstrated determination, perseverance and spirit in fulfilling her goals as a player. Her survival of cancer during her time at MSU has made her a national leading advocate for research and awareness.
Nagel won the Michigan Women’s Open in 2018 and has been a stalwart on the LPGA Tour for many years. In her rookie year on Tour, she made the cut at the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open. In high school she was Michigan’s Miss Golf twice and won two state championships.
Sarah White, EPSON Tour
White, a Grand Rapids native, won her first professional tournament as an amateur, taking the title of the EPSON Tour 2020 Founders Tribute at Longbow. There she went head-to-head at the end with Germany’s Sophia Popov, the week preceding Popov shocking the golf world by winning the 2020 Women’s British Open.
White is the younger sister of Brett White, and she created a toughness reputation by playing high school hockey for East Kentwood – where she won the 2014 high school state title her senior year. She began her college golf career at WMU but finished it at Texas State University.
Ashley Lau (U-M), EPSON Tour
Lau, who ended her college career to turn pro one semester early of her final spring eligibility, as born in Malaysia and attended high school in Australia. She started every event for the Wolverines of her 4.5 year career, and was last year’s Big Ten Golfer of the Year. She played in the Augusta Women’s National Amateur. Her U-M records include: single season scoring average (71.84; 2021-22), career average scoring and four individual titles.
