Brandon Wu

Brandon Wu was born in Danville, Calif., and moved to the People's Republic of China (Beijing) when he was 8 and then to Scarsdale, New York. Five years later, his father took an investment banking job in New York City in 2010. Once back in the United States, Wu took up golf and developed his game when he attended Deerfield Academy, a preparatory school about 35 miles north of Springfield, Mass. At Deerfield, he earned four varsity letters in golf and swimming. He also led both teams to the 2013 New England Championships. When he is not playing golf, he enjoys playing recreational hockey and attending baseball, basketball, and hockey. He could only play golf six months a year, and because of the short season, he thought of himself as an average junior prospect. So he intended to play college golf at Dartmouth and for coach Rich Parker, but Parker believed Wu was a better golfer and could do better beyond the Ivy League. That's when Parker emailed Stanford coach Conrad Ray to take a closer look at Wu. Ray saw great potential in Wu, and that's how he started his Stanford career as an unheralded, undersized freshman.
As a freshman on the Stanford golf team, he was chosen on the all-Pac-12 Freshman Team and had a 72.48 scoring average. His best result was T-10th at The Goodwin. He also finished T-28th at the Pac-12 Championships and T-40th at the NCAA Regional.
As a sophomore, he was selected as a PING All-Region and an all-Pac-12 second team. He participated in 11 events and held a 72.03 scoring average. His lowest round was a 65 at the NCAA Regional Championships, where he finished T-4th. He was also T-4th at the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate.
He was selected as PING All-Region in his junior season and was an all-Pac-12 first-team. Wu participated in 12 events and held a 70.61 scoring average. His best finish was 2nd at the NCAA Pacific Regional and T-2nd at the Nike Collegiate Invite. He was also a semifinalist at the 2018 Western Amateur Championship and competed in the 2018 U.S. Amateur championship at Pebble Beach but didn't make it into match play.
Wu capped off his career at Stanford in May of 2019 when he led the team to its ninth National Championship title in school history as a senior. After knocking off higher seeds Wake Forest and Vanderbilt in dramatic 3-2 finishes, Stanford drew fifth-seeded Texas in the championship final and came from behind to claim the title 3-2. Wu delivered one of the winning match points while going 3-0 in match play for the Championships. We had one individual title and five top-10 finishes in his senior season. He was named to the All-Pac-12 team first-team.
Wu was named to the 2019 United States Arnold Palmer Cup team competing at The Alotian Club from June 7-9. He qualified and played in the U.S. Open, finishing T-35th. The graduation ceremony from Stanford was the Sunday of the U.S. Open; Wu was to miss the ceremony at Stanford because he was playing over the weekend, but he made sure that he got his product design degree after finishing the final round at Pebble. USGA president-elect (and Stanford MBA grad) Stu Francis gave him his degree behind the 18th hole.
Wu took a gamble in trying to play in the British Open by flying over to Scotland to grab one of the three spots available at Royal Portrush. He succeeded in the final qualifying event at Fairmont St. Andrews by winning with rounds of 64-67. He became the first amateur since 1957 to qualify for the U.S. Open and the Open Championship in the same summer without an exemption. Two weeks later, he played at Royal Portrush but missed the cut. Now Wu could have turned pro after graduating from Stanford, but he wanted to play in the Walker Cup team and made the team. Before playing at Hoylake, Wu played in the Ellie Mae Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour, finishing T-30th. He then played in the Pan American Games in Peru, and along with Stewart Hagestad, they won gold for the U.S. as Wu finished 4th in the individual portion. The only problem with the tournament, the final round was 24 hours before the start of the U.S.Amateur at Pinehurst, as both players were able to make the long journey from Peru to the United States and make it to their first-round tee times. Despite the lack of sleep and the long journey, Wu was able to shoot 65-72 and was the low medalist. Unfortunately, things caught up to him, and in his first match was beaten by Austin Squires 2 up. Wu ended his amateur career playing in the Walker Cup at Royal Liverpool a month later. He played in all four matches, winning three but losing his Sunday singles match to Sand Scott 4 and 3 as he helped Team USA win.
After the Walker Cup, Wu turned professional, making his debut at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews; he missed the cut. He made his PGA Tour debut at the Houston Open, and after rounds of 69-70-69, he went into the final round just three shots back of the lead. But he shot a final round 72 to finish T-17th. He played in one more event finishing T-55th at the Mayakoba Golf Classic before going to Korn Ferry Tour qualifying. He finished T-61st to earn a conditional card for the Korn Ferry in 2020.
2020 Notes: Played in 28 Korn Ferry Tour events in 2020/21, making 21 cuts with seven top-ten finishes. He earned his first PGA Tour card for the 2021/22 season as he finished 16th on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List (after he finished the regular season at No. 13). He Started his year T-55th at the Farmers Insurance Open and then a T-38th at the AT&T Pebble Beach. He couldn't get into any of the six Korn Ferry events before the tour was shut down due to COVID-19. Wu was set to play on the Korn Ferry Tour's TPC Colorado in the first week of July but tested positive during the on-site screening process. He was asymptomatic but had to sit out the week, and when he passed both COVID tests the next week played the Workday Charity on the PGA Tour and missed the cut. After that finally got into a Korn Ferry event finishing T-9th at the Price Cutter Charity. He held the 36 and 54-hole lead before shooting 74 in the final round. After a couple of weeks, finishing T-44th at the Pinnacle Bank and missing the cut at the WinCo Foods Portland Open found himself in contention at the Albertsons Boise Open. He finished T-2nd, two shots back of winner Stephan Jaeger. After finishing T-56th at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship, he won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship by a shot over Greyson Sigg. Wu erased a five-shot deficit on Sunday for the win and birdied his 71st and 72nd holes for the final round 65. The win not only locked his full-time status on the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2020/21 season, but he also secured a place to play at Winged Foot, just ten minutes from his parent's home in Scarsdale, New York. Despite being able to play from home, Wu shot 74-76 to miss the cut. He ended the 2020 season with a T-10th at the Savannah Golf Championship and T-2nd at the Orange County National Championship, a shot back of winner Trey Mullinax.
2021 Notes: Because of COVID had to spend a 2nd year on the Korn Ferry Tour. He played in three PGA Tour events and was T-7th at the Puerto Rico Open (His first PGA Tour top-ten finish). In his 19 Korn Ferry events, his best finish was T-7th at the Huntsville Championship and T-10th at the Knoxville Open.
2022 Notes: Played in 26 PGA Tour events making 12 cuts with four top-ten finishes. It was 82nd in the FedExCup rankings. He missed nine cuts in his first ten starts before breaking the streak with a T-3rd finish at the Puerto Rico Open, seven shots back of winner Ryan Brehm. Shot a final round 63 at the Mexico Open to finish T-2nd, a shot back of winner Jon Rahm. Shot a final round 67 at the Genesis Scottish Open to finish T-6th, four shots back of winner Xander Schauffele. With the finish, he earned one of the three final spots available to play in the British Open at St. Andrews, where he missed the cut. He was T-8th at the Wyndham Championship and, in the FedExCup playoffs, missed the cut at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
2023 Notes: Finished T-2nd at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, three shots back of winner Justin Rose. Shot 67-68 over the weekend to finish 3rd at the Mexico Open, five-shot back of winner Tony Finau.