By Megan Venable
Hey y’all. Meet Brennan Webb. He’s head coach of the men’s golf team a UT. Hailing from Bracebridge, Ontario, he quickly became accustomed to the sport. His father was a professional golfer and a sister recently was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame at the University of New Mexico. Growing up in a house on the 11th tee of a golf course, Webb jokes that his mother had to learn to play the sport recreationally in order to spend any time with family members. When no snow was on the ground, golf was his life.
It still is.
He came south as an undergraduate student at East Tennessee State University, then a top-10 school for golf. After watching powerhouses like Michigan and Syracuse play football, he had no idea how small a college campus like ETSU’s could be. “Johnson City is an amazing town,” Webb says, “and I loved every minute of my time there.” He studied finance, graduated and started playing professionally.
He finished his career with wins in the 2010 Coors Light Open and on the Hooters Tour. Webb then began coaching golf at the University of South Florida and Georgia Tech before coming to Middle Tennessee State University. It was there that he caught the attention of then-Athletic Director Phil Fulmer and was invited to move to Knoxville and work for the Vols.
Webb admits that the golf program wasn’t as strong as it could be when he signed up as a VFL, but now believes “Cherokee Farms is the best golf facility in the country.” In retrospect, he realized that flipping from a professional golfer to a coach was an adjustment. Playing for himself to working as a member of a team was difficult; however, he is committed to making the Vols elite. He says UT golf is a sleeping giant, and he’s working to make sure it lives up to its potential.
As for the future of golf, he claims Knoxville is an ideal location for the sport. Anyone can learn at any age and at any level of skill and athleticism. “There’s a lot of great players from the area, and the city has a lot of great par-three courses and Top Golf opportunities.” These are important, he says, because “there are some roadblocks to golf, and having the time to actually play a game is one of them. The advantage of golf is that you can play it forever. There’s so many former athletes who still want to golf.”
Webb, along with his wife and two daughters, can be found day-to-day enjoying life as Knoxvillians. They love UT sports, the Smoky Mountains and boating on the lakes around town – the latter especially during the Covid epidemic. As a family they are happy with their transition to the area, and he says he intends this to be the last job he ever has. He hopes to live up to expectations in all departments and prepare the UT program to be best in the country when he retires.
In the meantime, you’ll find Webb at Cherokee Farms, toiling diligently with his team to improve their game -- maybe even in the snow.