Hard work finally pays off for PGA pro, Los Altos resident Jeff Brehaut

By Pete Borello, Town Crier Staff Writer

Last year was not kind to prominent Bay Area athletes over 40. Jerry Rice retired from football after being told he would be a bit player and Barry Bonds missed most of the baseball season with a knee injury.

But for a lesser-known pro around the same age, 2005 was a breakout year. Golfer Jeff Brehaut of Los Altos had his best season on the PGA Tour, finishing 61st on the money list by earning $1.2 million.

“He’s at an age where others are winding down and he’s winding up,” said Brian Inkster, golf director at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club and a close friend of Brehaut’s.

“He’s really playing his best golf.”

Although he turns 43 in June, Brehaut (pronounced brey-ho) doesn’t believe he’s peaked yet.

“I hope not,” he said. “I want to keep knocking on the door.”

He knocked pretty hard last year, placing third at The International and tying for fourth at the Deutsche Bank Championship. For the season, he had a career-high five finishes in the top 10.

That first tournament victory on the PGA Tour still eludes him, however.

“I’d like to win, that would be nice,” said Brehaut, entering his seventh season on the tour. “And I’d like to play Augusta (for the Masters Tournament). I just have to continue to improve and get better.”

Brehaut’s golf game seems to get better every year. His improvement isn’t an accident.

“He has a great work ethic,” Inkster said. “I’ve never seen anyone work on his game as hard as he does - and I have a wife who works really hard on her game.”

That would be Juli Inkster, a 23-year pro who is in the LPGA Hall of Fame. She befriended Brehaut 25 years ago at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club and routinely plays rounds with him there. Brehaut said Inkster is “like a big sister” and “like a sports psychologist.” Brehaut often calls her for advice while on the tour, especially when he’s in contention.

Inkster, 45, is concerned Brehaut might be practicing too much.

“He puts in a lot of time,” she said. “He’s constantly working on his swing. Sometimes it gets him; you don’t need a perfect swing to win, just one that repeats.”

When he’s not on tour, Brehaut can often be found at the country club trying to master his swing by hitting ball after ball into the practice net.

“He spends hours in there,” Juli Inkster said. “I don’t know how he does it. I can’t do it for more than a half-hour.”

There are probably few golfers, trapeze artists or commercial fishermen who work with a net as much as Brehaut. If it’s raining, he will hit off artificial turf into the net he has at home.

Brehaut usually records each swinging session on videotape, sitting down that evening to critique it.

“That’s when I check out and watch TiVo in the bedroom,” said Hilary Brehaut, Jeff’s wife of 17 years. “That’s his thing; it’s his quiet time after everyone’s gone to bed.”

Brehaut’s devotion has paid off. He considers ball-striking the strength of his game: “I’m always ranked statistically very high in total driving and greens in regulation.”

Brian Inkster added that Brehaut is not one to be underestimated at the tee, despite his 6-foot, 170-pound frame.

“He’s not a big guy, but he bombs it,” Inkster said. “His drives are hard and straight.”

If there’s a weakness in Brehaut’s game, it’s his putting. Prior to last year, he never ranked higher than 165th statistically.

“I’m always near the bottom,” he said. “I’d been saying that if I got better, in the top 125, I’d make a million dollars. I was 119th last year and made $1.2.”

Brehaut attributes his improved putting to a discovery he made at the country club. He got into a routine of taking 50 12-foot putts every day, whether he made them or not, and started seeing the ball target better. Brehaut continues this practice, whether he’s home or on the road.

Brian Inkster is encouraged by what he’s seen on the green from Brehaut.

“He’s working on his putting,” he said, “and I wouldn’t be surprised if it steps in line and he wins a tournament.”

It’s a good bet Brehaut has surprised those who knew him growing up by just getting on the tour. He didn’t have a pitching wedge in his hand at the age of 5 like Tiger Woods; Brehaut took up the game at 14.

“I didn’t start until I got my butt kicked in high school football,” the 1981 Los Altos High School graduate said. “I was a small freshman and got slammed around pretty good. That’s when I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll try this golf stuff.’”

He began playing at the country club with his dad, Gene (who is still a member), then entered junior tournaments with his friends.

“I got good by accident,” Brehaut said. “I was motivated by getting better and I enjoyed the competition.”

He went out for the Los Altos High golf team, coached by Roger Oswald, and steadily improved.

“My last couple of years I was the No. 1 player, but the team wasn’t fantastic,” Brehaut said. “I was an OK player.”

Brehaut said he wasn’t highly recruited by colleges and wrote several letters to schools in an effort to get a scholarship. The University of the Pacific offered a partial scholarship, and Brehaut jumped at it.

“I thought it was a place I could fit in well and play tournament golf because it wasn’t one of the top programs,” he said. “It was someplace that was the right fit.”

Brehaut said he “improved slowly” at UOP and eventually earned additional scholarship money. But he was never better than the team’s third-best player and didn’t win a tournament in his four years. That’s why Brehaut was caught off-guard by the recent announcement that UOP will induct him into its Athletic Hall of Fame on April 22.

“I was surprised, but I guess it’s because I’m one of the few golfers from UOP to make it on tour,” said Brehaut, who graduated in 1986 with a communications degree. “I told my old coach (Glen Albaugh), ‘I’m damn sure it’s not for what I did in college.’”

After college, Brehaut turned pro and slowly worked his way up the golfing ranks. He first played a year on the Asian Tour, and then on the developmental Golden State Tour until 1993 when he ascended to the Nationwide Tour, “which is like the minor leagues in baseball,” Brehaut said. All the while, he was trying to get his PGA Tour card.

“He’s been to Q-school probably more than anyone,” said Brian Inkster, referring to the annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament. “He just kept at it.”

After six years on the Nationwide Tour, Brehaut finally received his card by finishing among the top 30 in the six-day qualifier.

“I was always in the top 50 on the Nationwide Tour, and I was motivated by seeing others I was playing with (qualify),” said Brehaut, who was 35 when he joined the PGA Tour in 1999. “I thought, ‘If he can do it, I can do it.’ I kept believing and trying, and it happened.”

Perhaps no one was happier about it than Hilary.

“That was like, ‘Wow! He did it,’” she said. “I remember telling him, ‘Do you need to double-check your score or anything? Make sure it’s in the books.’ It was great.”

Hilary has been Brehaut’s biggest fan since college, where the couple started dating. They had gone to high school together at Los Altos High - she was a year behind him - but weren’t friends. That changed her freshman year at UOP after Brehaut recognized her name, then Hilary Dailey, on a dorm-room door. “I knocked,” Brehaut said, “and one thing led to another.”

The Brehauts have two children: Riley, 11, and Natalie, 6. Both attend Loyola School.

“Jeff has a great wife supporting him and he’s a great dad,” said Juli Inkster, who has two children as well. “Having a family and playing on the tour isn’t easy.”

Brehaut makes it work by ensuring he isn’t away from his family for more than three weeks at a time.

“It’s difficult being away from my wife and kids,” said Brehaut, who lists spending time with his family - followed by working in his yard - as his favorite things to do away from golf. “It’s the worst part (of being on the tour) by far, especially in the winter and fall when the kids are in school.”

In the summer, Hilary and the children join him on tour. When there was a weeklong break from school last month, they flew to Arizona to be with Brehaut at the Chrysler Classic of Tucson (he finished tied for 51st). Brehaut is home this week after playing in the Ford Championship at Doral last weekend in Miami (he came in 64th).

Brehaut has played in seven events this young season, earning just more than $70,000. His best finish came Feb. 19 at the Nissan Open in Southern California. Brehaut tied for 23rd, winning nearly $43,000.

“The more time I’m on tour, the more I feel I belong - that I can do this and the guys accept me,” he said. “The first few years you’re trying not to step on any toes and want to prove you belong.”

Seeing that Brehaut’s closest friends on the tour include veteran players Scott McCarron, Brandt Jobe, Jay Williamson and Kent Jones, he has been accepted.

Brehaut took a longer road to the tour, yet he said he never thought about giving up on the dream.

“I’ve had a totally different journey than the average guy,” said Brehaut, whose photo recently went up next to Juli Inkster’s on the Los Altos Golf & Country Club Wall of Fame. “I wish I would have either gotten better or gotten worse faster. But I love to play, and I wasn’t starving. I persevered and felt I kept getting better.”