He is the only player to ever win on his PGA Tour debut before never securing another professional victory

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Michael Brennan is in a fantastic position to become only the seventh player since 1970 to win a PGA Tour event in his first three starts.

Brennan leads the Bank of Utah Championship by two shots with one round to play at Black Desert Resort.

The 23-year-old is in the field as a sponsors’ invite. But he is clearly not there to simply make up the numbers. He has won three times on PGA Tour Americas this year. Should he win on Sunday, he will get the opportunity to bypass the Korn Ferry Tour and earn his PGA Tour card for 2026.

Incredibly, the previous player to win on his third ever PGA Tour start was Matt McCarty. McCarty is second to Brennan after three rounds, with his maiden victory coming at the same event last year.

But it turns out that there is still just one player who has marked their PGA Tour debut with a win.

The only player to ever win on their PGA Tour debut

The Western Open was once considered one of the most prestigious events in the game. Walter Hagen won it five times, while the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Tiger Woods all triumphed on multiple occasions.

But history was also made in 1988 as Jim Benepe won at Butler National. He finished one shot clear of Peter Jacobsen, who then lost in a playoff to Mark McCumber at the same event the following year.

Benepe had won the Order of Merit on the Canadian Tour in 1987. Meanwhile, he won the Victorian Open in Australia in February 1988.

But few still would have expected him to triumph in Illinois in July. In fact, it seems that Benepe himself was just as surprised as anyone, having been delighted just to make the weekend. Putting himself in contention was a bonus, as he told the Sheridan Press in 2018.

“I hadn’t embarrassed myself,” he said. “I had made the cut. That was great. With that done, this was a free shot at the big time, so I said, ‘What the hell?’ I had nothing to lose.”

He would finish inside the top 30 at The Open Championship later that month and end up winning the Rookie of the Year award on the PGA Tour for 1988.

Years of struggle followed for Jim Benepe after his win at the Western Open

Unfortunately, that proved to be as good as it got for Benepe at the highest level. Due to injury problems and a loss of form, the 1991 season proved to be the final time he played a full schedule on the PGA Tour.

He would not make another cut at golf’s top table until 2004. Benepe ended his career with three top 10 finishes in 123 starts.

You would imagine that there will have been plenty of times when Benepe would have traded his victory for greater longevity on the PGA Tour.

However, no one can take away the fact that he was the first player to win on their debut PGA Tour start.