Tommy Brennan

Tommy Brennan was born and raised in New Orleans and learned the game at age 8 from his father and brother. Baseball and basketball were his sports growing up, but he also played golf in high school and led the team to its first-ever state championship in 1978.
He enrolled at the University of Alabama in 1978 and competed on the golf team through 1983, with future PGA Tour pros Steve Lowery and Lee Rinker. After graduating with a degree in finance, he tried the mini-tours from 1985 to 1987. With no luck getting through Q-School, Brennan returned home to start a career with Merrill Lynch. He has been with Merrill Lynch for 31 years. His family is in the restaurant business and owns a total of 15, including Brennan's, Commander's Palace and Mr. B's in New Orleans.
He was reinstated as an amateur in 1990.
Brennan was one match away from a USGA championship and a Masters invitation in 1994. He lost 1-down to Tim Jackson in the final match of the 1994 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn.
He has won seven Louisiana Golf Association Mid-Amateurs and has played in a total of 29 USGA championships, including 15 U.S. Mid-Amateurs, four U.S. Amateurs and three U.S. Senior Opens.
In 2005, Brennan's golf game went on a brief hiatus after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his office in downtown New Orleans. While the horrific storm missed his home, he relocated to a family farm north of Tuscaloosa, Ala. and worked out of his company office in Tuscaloosa until Thanksgiving.
Four of the restaurants his family owns, including the national recognized Commander's Palace in the Garden District of New Orleans, took at least a year to be rebuilt.
In recent years, Brennan captured titles at the 2016 Trans-Mississippi Senior Championship and the 2017 Pine Valley Senior Club Championship.
Brennan married his wife, Connie, in 1989. They have three children, Thomas, Blakey and Cooper.
Outside of golf, Brennan enjoys fishing and hunting. He loves to bass fish and quail hunt. He says he is very fortunate to be here competing in the U.S. Senior Open this week. In 2014, he had a heart attack at his home when his LAD artery ruptured. He was supposed to be fishing in the Gulf of Mexico at the time, but his youngest, Cooper, delayed the trip one day. If not for that, Brennan would have died on a boat with him. Cooper will be on the bag for Brennan when he competes in his 4th U.S. Senior Open this week in South Bend, Ind.