Amateur Michael Brennan has already had a dream debut at the US Open after playing a practice round with Rickie Fowler - 11 years after dressing up as him for Halloween as a kid.
In a lovely full-circle moment in golf, college golfer Brennan managed to get a round Fowler himself predicted when he signed a picture of the youngster dressed up in his full orange gear.
Fowler's autograph on the photo read: “Look forward to playing a practice round with you at the 2025 US Open! Keep up the good work!!”
And incredibly, although Fowler was out by a couple of years, on Tuesday Brennan teed it up with his childhood hero at Los Angeles Country Club for a practice round – with none other than Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
As if making your US Open debut wasn’t enough, Brennan got to play with the man who inspired him as a child, and also made the winning birdie to claim the spoils against Spieth and Thomas!
“I was nine or 10, I’m not too sure of the year exactly, but I loved Rickie,” Brennan explained to the PGA Tour. “Loved the orange, loved the young look. I had a wig for the long, flowy hair that he had going.
Brennan’s dad managed to get the picture to Fowler’s agent and asked him to sign it, when the idea of suggesting a future US Open meeting came about.
Then, when Brennan managed to qualify for the 2023 US Open, Fowler’s agent notified him and the wheels soon were put in motion for a dream round.
“Sam, my agent, called me, kind of piecing together the past and then I just told him ‘Hey have Terry put us in a group text and we’ll play with Jordan and JT’, said Fowler.
“I asked the guys ‘Do we have a fourth for Tuesday?’ They said no and I was like ‘Alright, I got one’
A major debut Michael Brennan will never forget. 11 years after dressing up as @RickieFowler for Halloween, he teed it up with him for a U.S. Open practice round ... and even beat @JustinThomas34 and @JordanSpieth in a match 😏 https://t.co/Cu93wTIRdK pic.twitter.com/mELSmjxm8YJune 15, 2023
It was an offer Brennan was never going to turn down: “He’s like ‘You know what? I actually need a fourth on Tuesday against the guys,. You want in?’
“I’m like ‘absolutely’ you know, I’d never miss that. I played alright, but we had a good match. It was always close.
“I looked up to Rickie as a kid and wanted to get out and play with him and he was able to make that happen and set-up a great match for us. So super grateful, it was really cool.”
2012: Dresses up like Rickie Fowler for Halloween2023: Tees it up with Rickie Fowler at U.S. OpenMichael Brennan lives out a dream playing a practice round foreshadowed years ago by a message from @RickieFowler. pic.twitter.com/xchPvyOFFTJune 14, 2023
Fowler says it was nice to see Brennan come full circle from following him as a child to playing with him at the US Open – and clinching the winning putt against Spieth and Thomas.
“It was cool to not only bring him to get to play with me and go full circle from taking a picture and signing that back in the day to him and I playing,” Fowler added.
“And he birdied the ninth to win our match against Jordan and JT 1UP!
“Being in a position to make a positive impact on other people’s lives, to see someone who looked up to me and now has passed me – he’s a bit taller than me – and to be playing in the US Open is pretty cool.”
