By Mike Blum
More than most sports, golf is frequently unexplainable, Take Brendon Todd as a prime example.
Todd was a key member of Georgia’s 2005 NCAA Championship team and turned pro in 2007 after an outstanding college career in Athens.
It didn’t take him long to make his mark as a professional. In his first start on the Tar Heel (now eGolf) Tour, he won. Three weeks later, he won in his second start on the Hooters (now NGA) Tour.
Todd made it to the finals of PGA Tour qualifying in his first attempt, but finished well down the list and began his first full season as a pro with limited status on the Nationwide Tour.
After not being able to get into the field in the first six Nationwide Tour events of 2008, Todd received a sponsor’s exemption into the Athens Regional Foundation Classic at Jennings Mill. He was tied for the lead after 54 holes, but struggled in the final round and fell all the way to a tie for 25th.
Todd shook off the disappointment of his shaky finish to tie for 9th two weeks later in Valdosta, and added two more top-10 showings in the next three weeks to secure his status on the tour for the rest of the year.
Thanks to a terrific stretch of golf through the summer, including a win in Utah, Todd ended the season in the top 20 on the money list to earn a spot on the PGA Tour in 2009.
The first half of Todd’s rookie season on the PGA Tour was progressing adequately, culminating in a tie for 12th in Memphis, where he shot 65-68-66 the final three rounds.
But then something happened. Todd broke 70 just once the rest of the year and missed his last 12 cuts of 2009. He returned to the Nationwide Tour in 2010, but did not come close to replicating his success two years earlier.
Todd did not make a cut the entire 2010 season, again breaking 70 just once. Thanks to his win in ’08, Todd retained status on the Nationwide Tour last year, but began the season with three straight missed cuts to run his string to 28 in a row.
After almost two years of struggles, Todd finally made it through 72 holes in Valdosta, and wound up making five cuts in succession with a string of solid finishes. However, that was followed by a stretch of 11 missed cuts in 12 starts before Todd closed out the year with four consecutive made cuts, including his first top 10 in almost three years.
Building on that momentum, Todd shot 64 in the opening round of his second stage Q- school qualifier and closed with a 67 to tie for 4th in Plantation, Fla., after entering the final round on the number for advancing.
That put Todd in the finals in La Quinta, Calif., and he responded with six straight under par rounds on the penal courses at PGA West, four of them in the 60s. He improved his position each day, beginning in the middle of the pack (T87) after an opening 71. A 68 the second day jumped him up to 15th, and he inched his way up to 9th, 6th and 3rd going to the final round.
With little attention focused on him, Todd put together a bogey-free 68 the final day and when the scores of all the competitors were added up, Todd was the Q-school medalist at 17-under 415.
Less than a year removed from the end of his 28-tournament streak of missed cuts, Todd is again a PGA Tour member. He began the 2012 season with the well-earned satisfaction of having overcome an inexplicable stretch of sub-standard play that lasted almost two years.
“I had a good game plan,” Todd said of his play in the finals of Q-school. “I worked on a lot of good things and it was one of those weeks. I stuck with the same things and kept getting better every day.”
Todd entered the final round four strokes off the lead, but with veteran Marco Dawson struggling to a 76, Todd seized his opportunity. Stretching his string of bogey-free holes to 32 on the two perilous courses that hosted the event, Todd scored back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15 to tie for the lead, and parred the tough finishing holes on the Stadium Course to claim medalist honors by one stroke.
With no scoreboards on the course, Todd had no idea how he stood relative to other players. For most of the final round, Todd was either tied or behind his two playing partners, who were in the next to last group off the tee.
“I was very surprised,” Todd said when he learned that he was tied for the lead when he completed the grueling 108-hole competition. While a number of his challengers were faltering down the stretch, Todd never flinched. When his co-leader bogeyed the 18th hole, Todd had first to himself and a $50,000 check, his largest since the tie for 12th in June of 2010 in Memphis.
“I figured I’d be in the top five.” Todd said, with his first inkling that he might be the winner coming from playing partner Jarrod Lyle.
“I shook his hand and he asked, ‘Did you win, mate?
“Then my wife or somebody said that I was at least in a tie for first.”
Todd, speaking from his home in Atlanta a few days before heading for Hawaii for his first start of the 2012 season, views his triumph in the finals of qualifying as “redemption” after almost two years of frustrating struggles.
Going almost two years without making a cut is something that can wreck a promising career, but Todd was able to weather the storm.
Even during his struggles, Todd says he was “excited about going to the course and thinking about how I can improve.
“I did not quit. I didn’t change what I was doing. I never stopped fighting.”
Todd’s troubles stemmed in large part from a loss of confidence in his driver.
“On the course, I started having negative thoughts. That’s what kept me down.”
Todd said he would stand on the first tee and immediately begin to focus on where the out of bounds stakes were.
“That caused me to shake violently.”
Once an accurate driver, Todd reached the point in 2010 where he barely hit half the fairways from the tee. But with the help of what he says is “a great support team” and an unshakeable belief that had the ability to succeed at golf’s highest level, Todd eventually worked his way out of the problems that dogged him for such a long stretch.
“I have a deep-seated belief that I’m a good player who was meant to play on the PGA Tour and have a long career. I’ve been successful at every level I’ve played at.”
Beginning early last year, Todd says he “started playing better, but I couldn’t finish on the weekends.”
He finished the year 84th on the Nationwide Tour list, as his ball striking stats returned to levels closer to where they were in his first season on the tour, while his putting touch remained among the best on tour.
Todd will be one of a sizeable group of former Georgia Bulldogs on the PGA Tour this year, including several former teammates.
Chris Kirk, Todd’s teammate for four years and a fellow part of the Bulldogs’ 2005 NCAA Championship team, is among that group, and was a winner as a PGA Tour rookie in 2011.
Todd points out that the two have followed “different career paths.” It took Kirk a few years to make his mark as a tour pro, but he broke through with a big year on the Nationwide Tour in 2010, and followed that with an outstanding rookie season on the PGA Tour last year.
“He’s one of those guys who continues to give me hope,” says Todd, who will find a lot more fellow ex-Bulldogs on the PGA Tour than when he was a rookie in 2009.