We Tested One of the Best Athletes on the PGA TOUR | Michael Brennan’s TPI Assessment

Michael Brennan arrived at the final event of the PGA TOUR’s regular season 105th in the FedExCup, with one top-10 finish and a season that was about to end. Six days later, he had a Wyndham Championship trophy, his second PGA TOUR title, a spot in the postseason and a return trip to the Masters.

The easy story is that it was a season-changing week for one of the game’s most compelling young talents. The truer one is that Michael has been building toward moments like that since he was a teenager. The longitudinal record his team has built is a major reason that progress has been so deliberate. When he came through TPI with coach Adam Harrell, longtime trainer Jason Meisch and caddie Jeff Kirkpatrick, what stood out was not any single number. It was that almost none of them surprised the people who brought him.

Michael has also worked with strength coach David Bass while at Wake Forest (who he is referencing at the very beginning of the video) and short-game guru James Sieckmann, who helps teach our Golf Level 3 course. 

In many ways, Michael embodies what we preach at TPI. He has worked to make his physical capabilities an asset to his game. He trusts a talented team to guide his programming. And he is committed to assessing what matters, identifying opportunities and continuing to improve.

The Physical Screen and Power Testing

The screen revealed very little of concern: some tightness in the right ankle and right hip, a minor core-control limitation and mild right-side asymmetry consistent with a decade in a one-sided sport.

The hip finding was the interesting one. When asked to rotate in a loaded position, his range was limited. On the table, however, passive testing showed full range. That distinction matters. Limited motion despite adequate passive range points more toward stability or motor control than mobility, and those findings require different training strategies.

The strength and power testing is where the day got loud. Michael exceeded the PGA TOUR average on every test. He jumped 26.4 inches compared with a Tour average of 23 inches. His seated and standing med-ball throws were above average, as was his grip strength.

A separate split-squat strength test would have offered little additional information. Meisch already has him performing eight reps at 215 to 220 pounds, well above what we typically see among male golfers of his bodyweight.

None of these results landed as news. Meisch has physical-screen and strength data on Michael going back to age 14 and captures 3D swing data every three or four months. They are not guessing at what he needs, nor are they defaulting to the exercises he happens to enjoy. They test, they retest and they train what actually underpins the way he plays golf.

That patient, process-oriented approach has helped make Michael one of the most physically capable athletes in the game. As Dr. Rose put it, “You can see that fitness isn’t just something he’s added. This is a lifestyle for him.”

The Kinetics and Kinematics

Total torque and vertical force are among the kinetic variables most closely associated with clubhead speed. Michael produces plenty of both. What sets him apart is when he produces them.

With the driver, he begins pushing against the ground remarkably early. His vertical force peaks well before the shaft reaches vertical in the downswing, and that timing is one of his real advantages. Golfers whose vertical force peaks after shaft vertical have less time for that force to contribute to clubhead speed. Michael cruises at 126 mph compared with a PGA TOUR average of 117 mph.

The kinematics were equally exceptional. Not only did he sequence efficiently, but he also produced elite rotational velocity. His trunk peaked at roughly 909 degrees per second compared with a Tour average of around 700. His backswing produced more than 120 degrees of shoulder turn, compared with a Tour norm of 90, with his thoracic mobility helping make that range possible.

That turn also explains something that could look like a fault on video. Michael shows more lower-back extension at the top than the five degrees often used as a reference. But extension and rotation are coupled. As rotation increases, some additional extension should be expected. Five degrees may be an appropriate reference at a 90-degree turn. At more than 120 degrees, some of the additional arch is arithmetic, not necessarily error.

The Plumb Bob

One of Michael’s “three genie wishes” involved the feeling that he hangs back on his right side and that his path exits too far left with the longer clubs.

His setup data on our force plates may help explain it. In our lab, we can measure the position of the center of the pelvis relative to the center of the stance at address. We refer to it as the plumb bob.

If you hung a weight on a string from the center of your pelvis, we want to see where it would hang relative to the center of your stance. With a driver, it should sit roughly half an inch to an inch behind center because the goal is to hit up on the ball. As the clubs get shorter, that relationship should move forward.

Michael’s pattern ran in the opposite direction. His iron setup placed his pelvis farther back than his driver setup did, and he then swayed farther back during the backswing. The hanging-back sensation may not have been a downswing flaw he needed to overcome. It may have been a predictable response to the position from which he started.

With the iron, the adjustment was to move the plumb bob from about an inch behind center to about an inch in front and then hold it there. “Finish where you start,” as Dr. Rose instructed.

One important note is that the plumb bob is measured relative to the center of the stance, not ball position. Moving the pelvis forward effectively moves the ball back relative to the body, so ball position should move slightly forward to compensate. If the ball sits too far back relative to the body, a golfer may have little choice but to hang back.

As with every golfer we assess, our role is to give the existing team better information, not replace it. Adam Harrell has 12 years of context on this player. Jason Meisch has a decade of screen data and a training program built around it. The most important work happens after everyone leaves our Oceanside headquarters.

In Michael’s case, we gave a team that already knew its golfer exceptionally well a focused list of opportunities. Then they went back to work.

Eight months later, he was holding another trophy on the 18th green.

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If you're a golfer interested in a physical assessment, you can connect with a TPI Certified expert via our Find an Expert page.