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Golf

Sponsor invite Michael Brennan builds 2-shot lead at Black Desert

Oct 25, 2025, 10:14 PM ET

IVINS, Utah — Michael Brennan got into the Bank of Utah Championship on a sponsor exemption after tearing up the PGA Tour Americas. He’s in position to leave Black Desert on Sunday as a PGA Tour winner.

Brennan shot a 7-under 64 on Saturday in sunny conditions on the scenic course framed by red-rock cliffs to take a two-stroke lead over defending champion Matt McCarty.

“I have a great opportunity tomorrow, so try to take advantage of it, stay focused,” Brennan said.

Making his third career PGA Tour start and first as a professional, Brennan is trying to become the first player to win on a sponsor exemption since Nick Dunlap last year in the American Express.

“I was a little nervous, definitely,” Brennan said. “I don’t think it was anything crazy. Nothing that I hadn’t experienced playing professional golf on the Americas tour. I felt like those experiences were pretty similar, which I’m very happy about. I’ve had some experience, and I hope to draw on that tomorrow. But when you’re out on the golf course it’s just you and the golf course. “

Brennan played an eight-hole stretch in 7 under after dropping strokes with a double bogey on No. 2. He started the run with a 206-yard approach to 3½ feet for eagle on the par-5 seventh and finished it with chips to a foot on 12 and 2½ feet on 14. He scrambled to save par on 17 and birdied the par-5 18th to get to 17-under 196.

“I’m obviously very happy with how I finished this round,” Brennan said. “I played very solid coming in.”

The 23-year-old former Wake Forest star won three times in a four-event stretch on the PGA Tour Americas in August and September, and topped the season points list to take the first of 10 Korn Ferry Tour spots available on the tour.

His victories came in Windsor, Ontario; Brainerd, Minnesota; and Sherwood Park, Alberta. At Wake Forest, he won eight titles, topped by ACC Championships in 2023 and 2024.

McCarty also shot 64, closing birdie-birdie-birdie-bogey-birdie-birdie-birdie. He entered the week 84th in the FedEx Cup standings.

“Just hit a lot of good shots,” McCarty said. “Got a few putts to drop. Hit a good putt on 15, too. Just kind of bumped a little bit.”

After this week, only three tournaments remain in the season for players to finish among the top 100 in the FedEx Cup to keep full cards for the 2026 season. The top 100 has been reduced from 125 players keeping their cards a year ago.

Rico Hoey (63), Kevin Yu (63) and Pierceson Coody (66) were tied for third at 14 under. Hayden Springer (62) and Thorbjorn Olesen (65) were 13 under. In the FedEx Cup. Yu is 61st, Hoey 91st, Olesen 116th, Springer 131st and Coody 133rd.

“I’m pretty far back in terms of keeping my card, so it means a lot,” Springer said. “It’s important to me. There is a big difference between being in a conditional status to full status.”

Golf

PGA Tour returns to Austin with ‘Good Good’ as title sponsor

Oct 20, 2025, 07:38 PM ET

The PGA Tour is returning to Austin, Texas, for a FedEx Cup Fall event next year with the popular YouTube group “Good Good Golf” as a title sponsor for the first time.

The Good Good Championship will be held Nov. 12-15 on the Fazio Canyons Course at the Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa.

The PGA Tour previously held the Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club from 2016 through 2023. That was a World Golf Championship that had the top 64 players available from the Official World Golf Ranking.

Fall events typically do not feature many of the top players; rather it is a time for those who finish out of the top 70 in the FedEx Cup to try to finish among the top 100 to retain full cards for the following year.

The fall schedule is still being pieced together for 2026. Sponsorship for the Mississippi tournament ended this year, while the Las Vegas tournament ended last year.

Good Good Golf began in 2020 and has grown into one of the fastest-growing brands in the golf entertainment space with its enormous following on YouTube. The brand in March announced a $45 million funding round by Creator Sports Capital, aimed at expanding Good Good Golf across content, retail and live events.

“This tournament is designed to amalgamate our social and live communities together, across all demographics that are passionate about golf,” said Matt Kendrick, founder and CEO of Good Good. “We couldn’t ask for better partners in the PGA Tour and Omni Hotels & Resorts, who not only appreciate our ethos but embrace it.”

The PGA Tour has tried to embrace such groups with its Content Creator Classic series that have been staged at some of its bigger events. This is the first such digital brand to become a title sponsor.

The size of the purse was not announced. Most FedEx Cup Fall events have lowered prize funds this year to the $6 million range. The fall events still offer full FedEx Cup points (500 points to the winner) and a two-year exemption, but winners no longer get into the Masters.

Good Good Golf to sponsor new PGA Tour event in Austin, Texas

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Pro golf is returning to Austin, Texas — and it’s bringing the YouTube generation along with it.

On Monday morning, the PGA Tour announced its return to Austin for the Good Good Championship, a PGA Tour fall season event that will debut in 2026 and be title-sponsored by the popular YouTube golf brand. Like most other PGA Tour fall season events, the Good Good Championship will be aired on Golf Channel and ESPN+, will feature a field of 120 players and will award 500 FedEx Cup points to the winner, in line with regular-season Tour events.

The announcement marks pro golf’s return to a market in which it has long flourished, and to a city from which many were sad to see the sport depart when the WGC Match Play was discontinued in 2023. Events that overlap with the NFL season (the inaugural Good Good Championship will be played from Nov. 12-15) might not generate as many headlines or as much revenue as regular-season events, but they still help the Tour reap a chunk of its $700 million per year in TV rights agreements, and many millions more in title-sponsorship deals like Good Good’s.

For the title-sponsors of thisevent, the news is a strong indicator of the growth of YouTube golf into a golf-industry bonafide. The Tour title sponsorship marks the latest expansion for Good Good across the golf space following a $45 million fundraising round in the spring. While the biggest focus for the Good Good brand from that fundraising round appeared to be the expansion of its prolific YouTube and e-commerce businesses, the Tour sponsorship represents a swing of a different kind. From a brand awareness standpoint, it might be Good Good’s biggest move to date, fully bridging the gap between YouTube golf and its establishment friends at the Tour.

While the cost of the Good Good sponsorship was not disclosed, title sponsorships for full-field PGA Tour events reportedly run between $12-15 million per event — though fall events, which typically draw weaker fields than those in the regular season, may cost less. According to the release, the deal is a “multi-year partnership.”

The Tour’s continued reimagining of its competitive calendar has led to questions about the sustainability of events outside of the Tour’s main sprint from January through late-August. Today, the fall season is the preferred spot for Tour lifers and youngsters fighting for status, though the low-wattage nature of those tournaments relative to the rest of the season has made it easy to envision changes. The Tour’s new “Future Competition Committee” was created in large part to find long-term solutions for pieces of the Tour business like the fall season, even if that chunk of the schedule remains entrenched for the time being. (Golf Channel will handle linear TV coverage of the Good Good Championship, per the Tour’s release.)

The new Tour event also will welcome a new tournament host: the Omni Barton Creek, which will take over hosting duties from Austin Country Club, the longtime host site of the WGC Match Play.

Good Good to title sponsor PGA Tour’s return to Austin

One of golf’s top influencer brands is sponsoring the PGA Tour’s return to Austin, Texas.

Good Good Golf, which boasts nearly 2 million subscribers on YouTube, will serve as the title sponsor for the Good Good Championship, which will take place Nov. 12-15 at Omni Barton Creek Resort and Spa’s Fazio Canyons Course.

“The PGA Tour is proud to return to the great City of Austin for the first time since 2023 for the Good Good Championship, an exciting new event as part of the FedExCup Fall,†said Tyler Dennis, the PGA Tour’s chief competitions officer. “We are pleased to partner with Good Good Golf and Omni Hotels & Resorts on this unique event as the PGA Tour further connects and engages with our game’s younger fans.â€

Added Matt Kendrick, founder and CEO of Good Good. “This tournament is designed to amalgamate our social and live communities together, across all demographics that are passionate about golf. We couldn’t ask for better partners in the PGA Tour and Omni Hotels & Resorts, who not only appreciate our ethos but embrace it.â€

The tournament is expected to be one of two additions to the 2026 fall schedule along with the Mexico Open, which would move from its usual spring slot, per the Sports Business Journal.

The PGA Tour held the Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club from 2016 to 2023.