While we wait for the futures of LIV Golf refugees Jon Rahm, Sergio García and others to be sorted out, another wave of arrivals is already altering the look of the PGA Tour.
It’s too soon to know if their collective impact will be as significant as what the Jordan Spieth-Justin Thomas-Rickie Fowler group created but there is a cadre of newcomers already stamping their imprint on the tour, shouldering their way into almost immediate relevance.
The most notable, of course, is Jackson Koivun, who has already achieved a level of stardom that is grounded in his supreme talent, allowing his marketability to follow, not the other way around.
Last weekend, Michael Brennan won the Baycurrent Classic in Japan and, if you haven’t been paying close attention, that’s his third PGA Tour victory in less than a year. The 24-year-old former Wake Forest star has made just 33 tour starts, giving him a 9 percent win rate.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Blades Brown earned his PGA Tour card, becoming the youngest player in history to qualify via the Korn Ferry Tour, eclipsing by seven months the record set by Jason Day in 2007.
Add in Michael Thorbjornsen, Ben James and fresh Korn Ferry graduate Tommy Morrison, among others, and there is a gushing pipeline of young talent arriving. Include Akshay Bhatia and Tom Kim, both of whom are just 24 years old, and the deep end of the pool is already crowded.
It’s enough to make 26-year-old Ludvig Åberg seem almost middle-aged.
While Koivun has arrived with understandable attention – rarely has a player come out of college with such universal admiration from his peers and the more-seasoned class – Brennan’s success continues to elevate his profile.
Brennan won eight times at Wake Forest and won his first PGA Tour start as a professional last year at the Bank of Utah Championship. It was hard to know then if Brennan might be a one-hit wonder whose immense power carried him for a week and the question lingered when his game was flat most of this season.
Just to reinforce where he is age-wise on tour, Brennan – whose cat is named Tiger for you know who – once dressed up as Rickie Fowler on Halloween. Now, he’s making Fowler’s job more difficult and he looks like something AI might generate.
But Brennan won the Wyndham Championship in August, playing his way into the FedEx Cup playoffs at the last possible minute, the benefits of improved putting paying dividends.
In Japan last week, Brennan survived what at times looked like leaderboard gridlock, beating Keith Mitchell, the red-hot Jacob Bridgeman, Brian Harman and Xander Schauffele, jumping Brennan to 24th in the latest Data Golf rankings, four spots ahead of Koivun.
In Japan early Sunday evening, Brennan was asked if he has had time to reset his goals. There is a rough outline, Brennan said, but nothing specific yet.
“It would be really cool to play in the Ryder Cup next year in Ireland. That’s definitely a goal of probably most Americans who play on the PGA Tour. I think that would be an amazing experience,” Brennan said.
“I’m excited to get another crack at the majors. I think I learned a lot this year. It’s maybe a slightly different test than other tournaments, but I’m looking forward to going to play in those again.”
Just to reinforce where he is age-wise on tour, Brennan – whose cat is named Tiger for you know who – once dressed up as Rickie Fowler on Halloween. Now, he’s making Fowler’s job more difficult and he looks like something AI might generate.
Brennan is an old guy compared to Brown, who has demonstrated that his decision to bypass college has been a beneficial one. What seemed like a curiosity when he played the American Express as a 17-year-old has grown into a fast-track career move.
Brown earned his tour card via the Korn Ferry Tour, where he put together a solid season that included a pair of runner-up finishes including one on Sunday in the Tour Championship.
Perhaps more impressive is Brown’s 2026 season on the PGA Tour, where he made 11 starts, finished in the top 25 seven times and missed just two cuts. In case you’ve forgotten, Brown shot a second-round 60 at the American Express to help earn himself a final-group Sunday pairing with eventual winner Scottie Scheffler. While Brown’s closing 74 was disappointing, the experience may have been invaluable to someone who was 18 years old at the time.
At the Myrtle Beach Classic earlier this year, Brown already sounded older than his years when the subject of expectations was raised.
“Expectations are a weird thing, right?” Brown said. “If you focus on expectations, for me the thing that I’ve done to help me cope with that is just continuous improvement.
“As long as I’m doing what I can control and controlling the controllables and just focusing on continuing to get better and becoming the best player that I can be, that’s what helps me deal with expectations.”