2018 DJ World Junior Champ Michael Brennan Wins PGA TOUR Event in First Start as a Professional

Making his third career PGA TOUR start and first as a professional, 2018 Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship winner Michael Brennan became the fourth DJ World Junior champion to win a PGA TOUR or LPGA Tour event. Brennan’s emphatic, 4-stroke triumph Sunday at the Bank of Utah Championship at Black Desert in Ivins, Utah also earned him the distinction of becoming the first player to win a TOUR event on a sponsor exemption since 2021 DJWJ champion Nick Dunlap accomplished the feat last year at the American Express.

Brennan is a former Wake Forest star whose recent run of success on the PGA TOUR Americas, where he won three times in a four-event stretch, earned him the first of 10 Korn Ferry Tour spots available. With Sunday’s showing, he now bypasses the Korn Ferry Tour altogether and joins the PGA TOUR.

And with the victory, Brennan joined Dunlap and fellow past DJWJ champions Akshay Bhatia (2019) and Alexa Pano (2018, 2019) as the fourth DJWJ alumnus to win at the highest professional level in the 10-year history of the TPC Myrtle Beach-hosted junior event.

It’s just the latest in an astounding recent run of higher-level success already achieved by past DJWJ participants. This winners’ circle photo from the 2018 DJ World Junior now features not just three past winners, but five members of the professional ranks’ PGA, LPGA, Korn Ferry and Epson tours. Left to right, they include:

• Ben Carr (T-2 in 2018), the Georgia Southern alumnus who joined the Korn Ferry Tour in 2023 and has $56,931 in career earnings;
• Akshay Bhatia (T-2 in 2018), a two-time PGA TOUR winner with more than $13 million in career TOUR earnings;
• Brennan (1^st in 2018 DJWJ boys’ division), whose victory Sunday was also his first-ever made cut in a PGA TOUR event in three tries to date;
• Alexa Pano (1^st in 2018 DJWJ girls’ division), who joined the LPGA Tour in 2023 and has $1.2 million in career earnings; and
• Ashley Menne (2^nd in 2018 DJWJ), who joined the Epson Tour in 2025 and has $13,100 in earnings to date.

The 11th edition of the Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship is set for March 6-8, 2026 at the Tom Fazio/Lanny Wadkins signature design at TPC Myrtle Beach. Be sure to stay in touch with the DJ World Junior website and Play Golf Myrtle Beach for more information on how you can check out the next wave of golf’s rising stars!

Click an icon below to browse photos from the 2018 Dustin Johnson World Junior Golf Championship (Jim Maggio photos)