Michigander Ryan Brehm Returns to Michigan with First PGA Tour Trophy
Won Puerto Rico Open with wife Chelsey carrying the bag
By Tom Lang
“His good is as good as anyone.” – MSU Coach Casey Lubahn on Ryan Brehm.
If earning his first win on the PGA Tour – the Puerto Rico Open – and landing a full-time exemption for the next two-and-a-half years because of it measures up as ‘good’ in Ryan Brehm’s world – then yes, he’s as good as any pro golfer.
But that’s not MSU Coach Lubahn just playing cheerleader. Lubahn told me recently that they were playing together in a high-end member/guest event in Florida in December, and Brehm was approached by a winner and weekly participant on the PGA Tour.
“Basically he told Ryan, ‘kid, you are so good, it’s scary,’ and I think that mattered. A peer telling him, ‘man, you are so good’ probably gave him a little comfort.”
Brehm’s ‘good’ in early March meant winning the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, the same event that launched Viktor Hovland’s young career with a win two years ago – but with Brehm’s unique combination of having his wife, Chelsey, as a caddy that week. They are the last husband-wife team to do so since Patrick Reed and his wife, Justine, pulled off the feat nine years ago.
“I agree it did make for a great story, me and my wife out there walking and hitting golf shots,” Brehm said during a phone interview as the couple was ready to board the airplane from San Juan to Jacksonville, Fla. to participate in his first-ever THE PLAYERS Championship. “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.”
Getting a little better every day has been Brehm’s more-defined goal the past 7-8 months, to which Lubahn agreed has led him to this so-far career peak.
“Ryan said something very profound this off season when I was kind of nagging him to get back to work,” Lubahn commented. “He said, ‘all the bad breaks, whatever has happened to me, I’ve had three years on Tour and I haven’t done it. I’m obviously not good enough, so I just need to get better.’
“And that’s a tough realization for somebody who’s been the best at every level he’s ever been at. That frees you up to get better, as opposed to (thinking about) the things that have gone wrong over the years,” Lubahn said. “He was the best all his life (referring to Junior golf, three high school state titles and an MSU-record five college wins), then you get to this level and it’s a whole another thing.
“Ryan’s decided he was just going to get better, being Ryan Brehm, not being somebody else. Every time we talked about his golf swing, he’d compare it to some other Tour player. I haven’t heard him say that in several months now. He’s all about how Ryan Brehm needs to get better, not how Ryan Brehm needs to be more like this guy or that guy.”
Brehm is already darn good. Last year on a 21-event PGA Tour schedule, he was 7th in club head speed and ranked 11th in driving distance. His tall 6-foot-4 frame lends to hitting it far.
Brehm, who turns 36 years during Masters week, is a 3-time Michigan Open winner who set many golf records at Michigan State (2004-08) and was the last amateur to make a cut at the Buick Open, during his MSU days. He won the recent PGA Tour tournament on the tropical island by six strokes at 20-under par. He made only one bogey all week and fired 5-under par when all was on the line during the final round, including birdies on holes 9, 10 and 11 to run away from the pack chasing him.
His life struggles have included losing his mom, Debbie, to cancer last year, and less-than stellar play he’d been hoping for on the PGA Tour after previously collecting two Korn Ferry Tour career wins. But after losing his partial-status PGA Tour card in August from the past two seasons, he and Chelsey seemed to settle into the fact that the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour, his first-ever full time Tour status on any level, was going to make life more even keel and maybe provide ongoing stability with schedules and other factors of life on golf’s rocky road.
That schedule has changed dramatically between now and August of 2024, and a lot more stable with full-time status shifted one level higher than the feeder tour. And by the end of ‘24, he will have totaled five years on the PGA Tour, earning rights to the players’ pension fund, with bigger endorsements and larger tournament checks along the way.
“Our lives changed (with the Puerto Rico title) but they didn’t at the same time,” Chelsey said. “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, or losing loved ones. Those are the real-life changing things. Golf is what we do, this is our profession, and we kind of take that mindset with us.”
Chelsey won’t make a habit of loping for Ryan. She’s normally planning things 90 days out arranging for rental cars, hotels, flights and other duties.
“There’s a lot of things that go into 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,” she said, quickly pointing out that caddying as a couple is not for everybody.
“We have a lot of guys (on Tour) 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.”
But what will be her caddy cut of the winnings?
“It’s called joint checking.”
