Experience on the PGA Tour can be expensive. For Michael Brennan, the bill arrived this week in the form of a disqualification.
And a lesson he won’t soon forget.
Brennan, a 23-year-old rookie who won in his first PGA Tour start last fall, was disqualified after the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines after officials determined he had used illegal green-reading materials. He had opened with a two-under 70 on the North Course and was tied for 55th at the time.
Tour’s initial statement offered few details beyond citing a violation of Model Local Rule G-11. On Friday, Brennan provided the missing context himself.
In an Instagram post, Brennan said he recently started working with a course data analyst to sharpen his course strategy. The analyst provided green maps with hole locations to help plan the approach, and Brennan said he sketched some arrows in his golf book while studying those materials — an action prohibited by tournament rules.
After completing his round, Brennan said he asked the analyst for clarification on a feature shown on the maps and was then informed that transferring such information to a yardage book was not permitted. After realizing the mistake, Brennan said he contacted a PGA Tour rules official and was subsequently disqualified.
Model Local Rule G-11 restricts the use of course map features and handwritten notes that can aid in reading the line of play on the putting green, part of a broader effort to limit the role of detailed green reading aids in competition.
Brennan was thrust into the national spotlight in October when he won the Bank of Utah Championship at Black Desert Resort after being granted a sponsor’s exemption from the event. The win earned him a two-year exemption from the PGA Tour and the right to an education at the game’s highest level. Brennan started the 2026 calendar with a missed cut at the Sony Open in Hawaii, followed by a 56th-place finish at the American Express in La Quinta last week. With each start, he gets more spice, not all of it pleasant. But Brennan seemed to be taking it all in stride.
“While this has been a painful lesson to learn,” Brennan wrote, “I’m looking forward to the party in the desert next week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.”
In fact, the official name of the event is the WM Phoenix Open. But we won’t disqualify him for that.
