Rising American Golfers: Brennan Wins Wyndham Championship
Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme discuss the surge in young American golfers, marked by youthful triumphs and the exciting emergence of new talent on Tour.
Video Transcript
Charlie, I, I think leaving the Wyndham Championship and all of these young American winners, and the conversations that you and I keep having about what this Presidents Cup team is gonna look like, and here's another young player that Brandt Snedeker is gonna have to consider.
And, and it's just, it's, it's just adding to, you know, what is a great young American group that is poised to kind of be the, you know, the, that, that Collin Morikawa, Victor Hovland- Mm-hmm and Matt Wolf.
Like this, we're kind of entering that next stage with, with a really fun group of guys like Thor and Michael Brennan, Koeven, and the kind of list goes on with plenty of other guys.
I mean, those are your last three, three winners right there, Koeven, Thor, and Michael Brennan.
And then I- I'm not, putting aside the Presidents Cup conversation briefly here, but just talking about the depth of young talent on this tour.
Ben James shoots 61 today to finish solo third.
Right.
I know he, 108 in the FedEx Cup.
He's, you know, he's a guy who just came off, you know, 2026 the winner of that PGA Tour U, category to, to make his way onto the tour.
And, and even thinking about guys that, you know, I think about Tom Kim and, and the sort of the down period where he got written off a little bit, and there are so many young guys with a ton of potential that you give them a few years to figure it out like a, a Luke Clinton- Tommy Morrison oh, yeah, Tommy Morrison on the Korn Ferry Tour, but just there, there's so much- We're keeping tabs.
We're keeping tabs they're, they're ta- And then even looking at, at, at the girls' side.
Asterisk Talley today wins the US Women's Am.
I mean, it's just, it, the developmental program for American golf right now.
Miles Russell.
Miles Russell is another guy who- I mean, come on this next week you're gonna see him in action at Marion for the, for the US- That's right the, the Men's Am.
So j- it's just a great time for young American golf and just the, the talent it's producing and the ability to win right away.
It, it- Right it's, you know, it's, it's a renaissance of sorts.
No, it, it's great to see.
And, you know, Michael heading into this week, I'm trying to see where he was at in the FedEx Cup.
I know he made- He, I'll tell you where he was a huge, I know he made a huge move- He, he was 105 to just Okay.
So it's, it would be very, very difficult- He was a 47 it would be very, very difficult to consider him for, the Pres- Like he's got a- Yeah he's probably got to win again, to, to then, you know, I think then you're squarely in the mix in the conversation of like, okay, you, you got a young American and potentially one of the hottest, players in the world.
So, like, I think he's gonna have to keep building on that to, to just make his way into the conversation, at least get in contention.
But he's, you know, with Michael i- it's, it's, it's just great to see young dudes.
And like- Mm-hmm that's the thing about the PGA Tour, and I know we're gonna talk about LIV Golf here in a little bit, as we're, we're not gonna put it off this week.
We're officially gonna be- breaking down the LIV, LIV, uh- It was a good paywall while it lasted, yeah the news that have been building up over the last four weeks.
And so we feel like we have all the information in our hands, but the PGA Tour has always made stars.
Mm-hmm.
And when you win on the PGA Tour, you become what, more well-known.
It's, it's just a fact, man.
Like, and there's been young guys that have won on the LIV Golf tour that, Eugenio Chara- Chicora, that's how you pronounce his last name.
It's like, you know, listening and watching some of his quotes about, it's like, "You know, I made all this money, but, like, nothing changed for me.
You know, I still had this- empty feeling of one of, wanting to compete against the best and, like, playing in major championships.
Like, that's what my dreams were."
And so when Michael Brennan has this moment off of 18, not to say he hasn't already played in the Masters and played in these majors, but, like, that's what this kid's dream was, is to win on the PGA Tour, and now his life continues to evolve and change, and we can start, you know, this trajectory of where can Michael Brennan's ceiling be.
And that's, as we get into this debate later in the show, like that's- Mm-hmm what's happening for these young guys, is that they're, they're given these opportunities to become one of the best players not only in the world, but also the, one of the best American players in the world, which then, of course, just opens you up with, for so many, opportunities when it comes to sponsors and just becoming a, a, a famous athlete here in, in, in the States.
There's, there's so much that comes to it.
Michael's a talented player.
I'm so happy that he, that he got the win, and it looked hot, I will say.
It was a hot- Yeah
