Last September, at the season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship, Michael Brennan seemed poised to walk away with a win that would have earned him a spot on the Korn Ferry Tour. Holding a five-shot lead with seven holes to play, he made a bogey on 12, double bogey on 13 and quadruple bogey on 14. The 7-over stretch sent him tumbling down the leaderboard, eventually tying for third. From a projected fourth-place finish in the Fortinet Cup final standings, he dropped to 18th, missing his chance to be one of "The 10" who earned 2026 Korn Ferry Tour cards after the final event of the season.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” the 23-year-old said of a painful finish he’s chosen to frame as a learning experience.

While he admits the disappointment lingered for “about a month or so,” Brennan entered 2025 with a fresh mindset.

“It would be great to get a first win out here, and I would love to finish inside that top 10,” he said ahead of the season opener in Cordoba, Argentina, in late March.

Only four and a half months later, he delivered – in emphatic fashion. This past week at the BioSteel Championship in Windsor, Ontario, Brennan fired a career-low 61 in the opening round and held the outright lead from start to finish on his way to a five-shot win. The long-awaited first professional victory – the only missing piece in an otherwise stellar 2025 campaign – vaulted him to No. 1 in the Fortinet Cup standings with only five tournaments left to play.

“It's just a great confidence booster. It's something that I'll be able to look back on and remember in times of pressure and nerves, and how I performed,” said Brennan, who ran away from the field by shooting 5-under 30 on the back nine Sunday. “So really just building confidence, and hopefully I can build off this the rest of my career.”

The victory marked his 15th top-10 finish in 21 PGA TOUR Americas career starts. Along with his Fortinet Cup lead at 1,304 points – 78 ahead of second-place Davis Lamb – Brennan also tops the Tour in multiple statistical categories: most top-10 finishes (eight), best stroke differential average (+2.33), most rounds in the 60s (34), most sub-par rounds (39), most birdies (209) and most eagles (15). His scoring average of 67.29 ranks fifth overall and is first among players who began the season in Latin America. Dating back to the 2024 Fortinet Cup Championship, he has also made 12 consecutive cuts, the longest active streak on Tour.

Top 10 in Fortinet Cup standings

1. Michael Brennan, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 1,304 (11 starts)
Last week’s rank: Fifth
Best finishes: Won the BioSteel Championship (Week 11); T3 at Telecom Abierto del Centro (Week 1); T3 at Bupa Championship (Week 5); T4 at ECP Brazil Open (Week 2)
His wire-to-wire victory at the BioSteel Championship this past week was the only missing piece in an otherwise stellar 2025 campaign. Leading PGA TOUR Americas in several statistical categories, he now owns a 78-point lead atop the Fortinet Cup standings.

2. Davis Lamb, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 1,226 (10 starts)
Last week’s rank: First
Best finishes: Won the Inter Rapidisimo Golf Championship (Week 6); runner-up at Bromont Open (Week 8); T5 at Osprey Valley Open (Week 10)
After opening with back-to-back 65s to sit in a tie for 11th at the BioSteel Championship, he couldn’t carry the momentum into the weekend and slipped to a tie for 38th.

3. David Perkins, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 1,143 (11 starts)
Last week’s rank: Second
Best finishes: Won the Explore NB Open (Week 7); runner-up at Diners Club Peru Open (Week 4)
Like Lamb, he got off to a strong start in Windsor, tied for fifth after rounds of 66-63. A slow weekend dropped him into a tie for 46th — his first result outside the top 25 this season.

4. Brett White, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 988 (10 starts)
Last week’s rank: Third
Best finishes: Won the Commissionaires Ottawa Open (Week 9); T3 at Diners Club Peru Open (Week 4); T4 at ECP Brazil Open (Week 2)
In contention after a 65-65 start at the BioSteel Championship, he fell back with a third-round 71. He finished tied for 29th at 12-under.

5. Jay Card III, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 959 (11 starts)
Last week’s rank: Fourth
Best finishes: Won the Kia Open (Week 3); P2 at Osprey Valley Open (Week 10)
Coming off his second-best finish of the season – a playoff loss in Toronto – he couldn’t get anything going in Windsor. Consecutive rounds of 70 left him well outside the cut line.

6. John Marshall Butler, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 805 (11 starts)
Last week’s rank: Sixth
Best finishes: Won the Bupa Championship (Week 5); T3 at Diners Club Peru Open (Week 4)
In an 11-hole stretch last week in Windsor, he poured in 10 birdies – seven straight to close the third round for a 65, then three of his first four on Sunday for a 67. After five straight finishes outside the top 35, his tie for 14th at 14-under was quite positive.

7. Hunter Wolcott, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 720 (10 starts)
Last week’s rank: Ninth
Best finish: Won the Diners Club Peru Open (Week 4)
He followed an opening 68 with rounds of 66-65-66 to finish at 15-under and tied for ninth at the BioSteel Championship. It was his third top-10 of the season.

8. Dillon Stewart, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 703 (5 starts)
Last week’s rank: Eighth
Best finishes: Won the Bromont Open (Week 8); T5 at Commissionaires Ottawa Open (Week 9)
After missing his first cut of the season, he came out strong in Windsor with rounds of 64-63 to sit just behind Brennan. A third-round 73 ended his title hopes, but he still recorded his fourth top-25 in five starts with a tie for 23rd.

9. Carson Bacha, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 690 (5 starts)
Last week’s rank: Seventh
Best finishes: Won the Osprey Valley Open (Week 10); T3 at Bromont Open (Week 8)
Coming off a playoff win in Toronto, he opened with a 64 in Windsor but missed the cut after a second-round 71. He has alternated missed cuts with strong finishes this season, so keep an eye on him next week.

10. Maxwell Moldovan, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 651 (11 starts)
Last week’s rank: 11th
Best finish: Won the ECP Brazil Open (Week 2)
After dropping outside the Fortinet Cup top 10 for the first time this season with a missed cut in Toronto, a tie for 29th in Windsor earned him enough points (23.83) to move back into 10th.

Most significant moves outside the top 10:

23. Brendon Doyle, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 373 (8 starts)
Last week’s rank: 42nd
Best finish: T3 at the BioSteel Championship (Week 11)

34. Nathan Franks, United States
Fortinet Cup points: 300 (1 start)
Last week’s rank: Not ranked
Best finish: Runner-up at the BioSteel Championship (Week 11)

63. Shubham Jaglan, India
Fortinet Cup points: 155 (4 starts)
Last week’s rank: 198th (moved up 135 spots)
Best finish: T3 at the BioSteel Championship (Week 11)

Next stop: The race for the Fortinet Cup continues next week (Aug. 21-24) with the Manitoba Open at Breezy Bend Country Club in Winnipeg, Canada.