Big Break Myrtle Beach Winner Jimmy Brandt Makes PGA Tour Debut
The Lexus courtesy car with three miles on it; a Pro-Am pairing with World Series winning player and manager Lou Pinella; hitting balls on the range alongside major champions; having a gallery follow him. Yes, the Valspar Championship was everything Brandt dreamed it would be.
“It was absolutely amazing,” the Auburn, Al., native said. “It was one of the best weeks of my life.”
The only disappointment for Brandt, who earned an exemption into the event when he won Big Break, was the inability of his play to equal the experience. The Copperhead Course at Innisbrook is a ball striker’s layout and after a prolonged winter in Alabama, his game wasn’t as crisp as he’d hoped.
The result was to many drives in the course’s gnarly rough, which in combination of with excess adrenaline left him short of the cutline after shooting 76-74.
“I’m not going to lie, the first few holes it was kind of hard to swallow and my blood pressure was high,” Brandt said. “I didn’t hit it that bad but the one thing I struggled with in the first round was adrenaline. I hit the ball a little further than I was supposed to. That makes it hard when you are playing a precision golf course. You have to hit your numbers.”
Brandt was in good company on the wrong side of the cutline, joining Adam Scott, Ernie Els and David Toms, all former major champions, and nothing happened to dissuade him from believing his future is on the game’s biggest stage.
The one thing that did surprise the Auburn University alum was the fan support he received.
“I knew the show was big but I didn’t know I would have that many fans out there,” he said of his reception. “They were behind me 100 percent. It made me more comfortable. Regardless of whether I was hitting it in the rough or making bogies, they were cheering for me.”
Brandt’s story also piqued the interest of playing partners Rafael Cabrera Bello and Alex Prugh, who asked him about the experience of being on the show and the pressure created by the Big Break format.
Winning Big Break Myrtle Beach netted Brandt $75,000 and other prizes that will help sustain his quest to earn a PGA Tour card, so it’s difficult to call the Valspar exemption his most meaningful reward, but unlike money, his memory of the week won’t fade.
“Me and my dad (who caddies for him) have been looking to play in a PGA Tour event forever,” Brandt said. “Regardless if I’m disappointed in the way I played, we still had an incredible week. In this game one bad week doesn’t mean the end of your career. There are just so many opportunities and all it takes is one good week somewhere.”
Another perk of winning Big Break is paid entry into SwingThought.com Tour events throughout 2015, meaning Brandt will have plenty of opportunities for significant accomplishments. In between playing on the highly competitive mini-tour, he will attempt to Monday qualify for PGA and Web.com Tour events.
The filming of Big Break Myrtle Beach concluded nine months ago and the show finale aired in December, and the cast remains in occasional touch via group text. Not surprisingly, Brandt stays in closest contact with Toph Peterson, who he defeated in the show finale.
The one cast member most people ask Brandt about is the volatile Anthony Quezada, who attracted plenty of attention for his less than sunny disposition.
“We knew he didn’t like us while he was there, but we didn’t know he was saying all that kind of stuff about us (during the off-course interviews),” Brandt said. “When we were watching show, I was hearing some of this stuff for the first time, too … I saw him in December on the range at an eGolf Tour event and he came all the way down the range to say hi. He was about as nice as he could possibly be so that changed my viewpoint on him. I think he was just trying to be ‘that guy’ on the show.”
After receiving a taste of life on the PGA Tour, Brandt is now dreaming of being ‘that guy’ on a completely different type of show.
