IVINS, Utah – Welcome to the big leagues, Michael Brennan.

Exactly six weeks after his Three Victory Promotion to the Korn Ferry Tour following his third win this season on PGA TOUR Americas, the second-year professional leapfrogged his way to the PGA TOUR with a win at the Bank of Utah Championship.

The key? Just play like he’s at home.

“Terry (Reilly, his agent) always texts me: ‘Treat it like it's River Creek,’” Brennan shared Saturday night regarding the course he grew up playing in Leesburg, Virginia. “It's a very kind of calming and peaceful place to me. So when I try to imagine I'm hitting shots, just a 7-iron I would hit at River Creek, makes me feel a little bit better out on the golf course.”

The swing thought manifested into a winning reality on Sunday, where Brennan – who secured his spot in the field at Black Desert Resort via a sponsor invite – became the first player to win on a sponsor exemption since Nick Dunlap last year in The American Express.

“It feels amazing,” the 23-year-old said after the final putt dropped. “I get that belief from my family and friends, my team. I mean, Jeff Kirkpatrick, my caddie, believes in me I think more than anyone, maybe other than my parents. He told me ever since we played a great year, ‘We're not going to the Korn Ferry Tour.’ Whether it was, I don't know, through something like this or Q-School. I can't believe he's right.”

Brennan began to pull away from the pack out of the gate Sunday, making five birdies – no bogeys – and turned with a commanding five-shot lead. His first bogey of the day came at the par-4 10th hole, when he missed the fairway left and failed to get up-and-down to save par. The bogey opened the door for Rico Hoey, who made birdie at 10 to briefly cut the lead to three. But Brennan stayed steady down the stretch, collecting two more birdies to offset a bogey at 18 and secure his first TOUR title by four shots.

“A lot of mental maybe fortitude or focus has gotten a lot better,” Brennan said regarding his breakthrough TOUR moment. “Definitely been some technical things that have improved a lot around the green and on the green. I think that showed this week. Feel like I was pretty good around the greens. But a lot of belief in my game that I'm capable.”

“He's really good,” said friend and new pro David Ford, who notched his own first PGA TOUR milestone with his first career top-three finish in his 13th career TOUR start (Ford finished in a six-way tie for T3 that included defending champ Matt McCarty). “He hits the ball maybe the longest in the field this week. ... He's hitting it straight, so he's ripping driver everywhere. When he gets the putter going, he's going to be hard to beat any week. … To see him have success is not a surprise to me.”

Ford was close regarding Brennan’s driving distance rankings. Brennan actually ranked second on the week in driving distance, but he did lead the field in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and SG: Total.

“It’s surreal, it’s really kind of amazing,” Brennan’s mom, Shannon, said Saturday after watching her son hold the lead for the second day in a row. “We’ve been really looking forward to this day. We didn’t know it would happen this quickly. We’re just beyond happy.

“Growing up – whether it’s playing ping pong or croquet or horseshoes, or horse in the side yard – he’s not happy unless he wins,” she added.

His father, Mike, chimed in with a telling anecdote from Brennan’s childhood, noting: “We would give him – if he did certain milestones, or whatever it was in golf – we would buy him another club, like his 7-iron. I remember when we bought him his 7-iron, he slept with it for a week. Who sleeps with a 7-iron?”

Ford also offered some insight into Brennan after the two became good friends over the last six-plus years: “He's fun to laugh with, really fun to compete against. Just, off the course, a great guy, really humble. You wouldn't know that he's one of the best players in the world when he's off the golf course. Yeah, amazing competitor. Really good friend, too.”

Just 28 days ago, Brennan wrapped his PGA TOUR Americas career with a T4 at the Fortinet Cup Championship, his fourth straight top-five finish and 12th top 10 of the season. He grabbed the No. 1 position in the Fortinet Cup with his breakthrough victory at the BioSteel Championship in August. Two starts later, he won the CRMC Championship presented by Northern Pacific Center in a playoff, and he won the very next week at the ATB Classic to clinch his Korn Ferry Tour membership.

“It’s given me so much great experience playing on (PGA TOUR Americas) this year and having some success,” said Brennan, after first taking the clubhouse lead Friday evening when play was suspended due to darkness. “I feel like I’ll definitely be more prepared for this weekend after having those experiences.”

Brennan, a Wake Forest alum, earned PGA TOUR Americas membership last season after finishing No. 12 in the PGA TOUR University Class of 2024, which he followed with a No. 18 finish in the 2024 Fortinet Cup as a rookie.

Brennan played four seasons at Wake Forest University, where he earned eight individual victories, highlighted by back-to-back wins at the 2023 and 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships. Brennan’s collegiate victories also included the 2021 Wake Forest Invitational contested at Pinehurst No. 2. His eight wins were tied with 17-time PGA TOUR winner Curtis Strange for third in program history, only behind three-time PGA TOUR winner Gary Hallberg (nine) and 2011 FedExCup champion Bill Haas (10).