GREENSBORO, N.C. — Michael Brennan had another Sunday opportunity and delivered in a big way. He made five straight birdies to pull away from Beau Hossler and close with a 6-under 64 to win the Wyndham Championship and reach the PGA Tour's lucrative post-season.
Brennan came into the final tournament of the regular season at No. 105 in the FedEx Cup, a disappointing year with only one top 10. Now his season gets extended by at least one week — maybe longer based on how he's playing — after his second PGA Tour title in two years.
Brennan was one shot behind Hossler when he ran off five straight birdies starting on the fourth hole, all of them inside eight feet. That turned a deficit into a three-shot lead at the turn when Hossler took a bogey on the ninth hole.
Then it was a matter of hanging on for the 24-year-old Brennan, a Virginia native who played his college golf about 30 miles away at Wake Forest.
“I don't want to be done playing golf,” Brennan said. “Unfortunately, I've had a couple of tough Sundays. Outside of that, I had been playing really solid. This is my sixth week in a row. I'm perfectly happy running on fumes next week.”
The FedEx Cup playoffs start Thursday with the FedEx St. Jude Championship at the TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tenn. Only the top 70 players advance, and Brennan shot up to No. 47.
Mackenzie Hughes (65) of Dundas, Ont., was the low Canadian, tying for 29th at 8 under. He'll move up to 118th in the FedEx Cup standings on Monday.
Taylor Pendrith (64) of Richmond Hill, Ont., tied for 38th a shot back of Hughes and will drop four spots in the standings to 89th. Nick Taylor (69) of Abbotsford, B.C., tied for 72nd and will drop a pair of spots to 63rd in the rankings.
Taylor joined Corey Conners and Sudarshan Yellamaraju as the only Canadians to qualify for the post-season.
Jackson Koivun, who left Auburn in June and won the 3M Open in only his third start, narrowly hung on to the 70th spot and goes from college to the post-season in only two months.
But he had to sweat it out after closing with a 71. Matt Wallace and Davis Thompson were still on the course and in range of finishing high enough to bump Koivun out of the top 70. But they failed to hole all the key putts, and Koivun made it with eight points to spare.
A bogey might have been enough to knock him out of the post-season. But on the 18th hole at Sedgefield Country Club, Koivun piped his drive straight down the middle, leaving a wedge from the fairway and an easy par. Known for his composure, he was emotionally invested in every outcome down the stretch, a rare sight from the last two months.
“It's just a different type of nerves when you know you don’t have your stuff and you've got to go out there and execute some shots,” Koivun said. “I think that kind of sparked some emotion in me. Yeah, it’s easier to get comfortable when you’re playing well. It was just kind of a different feeling for me today.”
Brennan started feeling the nerves, too. He was four shots behind in a tie for fourth going into the final round of the 3M Open and shot 74 to finish out of the top 20. Last week at the Rocket Classic, he was in the final group and one shot out of the lead when he went the wrong direction again, closing with a 73 to tie for 15th.
He delivered in the final event of the regular season, and it was his mother who came onto the 18th green to celebrate who reminded Brennan the victory also sends him to the Masters. He made his Masters debut this year going from the PGA Tour Americas straight to the big leagues when he won the Bank of Utah Championship last fall.