‘Not over yet’: Pro’s 3-word answer sums up white-knuckle lava finish

The euphoria outside the ropes for soon-to-be PGA Tour winner Michael Brennan was understandable, to say the least.

Brennan held a five-shot lead as he strode up the 72nd fairway at Black Desert Golf Course in Irvins, Utah. None of his fellow competitors were within striking (or even shouting) distance. The victory that Brennan had spent a lifetime working toward — from a career as a decorated amateur and college golfer through to a see-sawing stretch as a pro — was well within reach.

And so, when a patron yelled out his congratulations to Brennan in the 18th fairway, it seemed like the kind of action that ought not raise an eyebrow. Except for the fact that it did raise an eyebrow … from the player it was intended for.

“It’s not over yet,” Brennan shot back, no doubt catching the audience by surprise.

The truth was that Michael Brennan could not help himself as the congratulations poured in during that long walk up the 18th fairway. He might look like a PGA Tour winner during that 18th hole coronation, but he knew better than to take an outcome for granted before he’d signed a scorecard. Nothing in pro golf is guaranteed — not until the final putt drops.

That much was especially true of Brennan’s forthcoming third shot on the par-5 18th, a gnarled par-5 cut into the desert landscape featuring an enormous, sloping green guarded by a pit of lava rock. What Brennan knew but the crowd didn’t was that his second shot on the 18th had landed in the lava-pit, which was technically a “general area” but effectively a penalty area — playable only if the ball was resting in a safe space between the rocks, and necessitating a penalty for a lost ball or unplayable if not.

Thankfully, Brennan reached his ball to find his margin of victory was still secure. His ball was resting in an unplayable spot in the lava pit, but it was his ball, meaning Brennan could take an unplayable and drop no nearer to the hole. Also fortunate: Neither of Brennan’s final-trio counterparts was in danger of making an eagle three, which might shrink the comfortable five-shot lead to a suddenly tricky three, with Brennan hitting his fourth shot from the safe tuft of grass behind the greenside lava pit.

Armed with that knowledge, Brennan white-knuckled a pitch shot high in the air, landing safely long and left of the flag and settling neatly against the back edge of the green. It was the kind of defensive swing Brennan had gone the entire week without making, but now he could afford it. He would have 25 feet for a scoring record-clinching par, two putts for a record-tying bogey, and up to four putts for a victory in case he intended to keep things interesting.

Brennan, ever the pragmatist, did not, two-putting neatly for the four-shot victory and the first PGA Tour win of his life. The win capped off an improbable week for Brennan, who was playing in his first PGA Tour start as a pro in Utah (his two previous major championship starts had come during his amateur career). It ended a season that saw Brennan win thrice on the PGA Tour Americas, and pressed the accelerator button on a career that, until this week, appeared destined for the Korn Ferry Tour in 2026.

Brennan might have started the week in Utah as a sponsor exemption playing in his first true PGA Tour event, but he left the week making good on the promise that allowed him to win eight times as a collegiate player at Wake Forest.

“It feels amazing,” Brennan said Sunday, after the final putt was in the hole. “I get that belief from my family and friends, my team. It really hasn’t set in. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Indeed, it is. Even if it took a little stress to get there.