Golf |

With MBA in bag, former Loyola Maryland grad Brandon Berry set to make Korn Ferry Tour debut next month

Brandon Berry has a bachelor’s degree in finance and an MBA from Loyola Maryland. But less than a month away from making his debut in a PGA Tour-sanctioned competition, he is understandably delaying that career path.

“The MBA is a great fallback plan if the golf thing doesn’t work out in three years and I’m still chasing that status,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll use the MBA at some point in my life, but right now, I’m just really focused on trying to get a little bit better every day at golf and see where that can take me.”

Berry will make his Korn Ferry Tour debut when he participates in the Astara Golf Championship Feb. 8-11 in Bogota, Colombia. Berry, a two-time Patriot League first-team selection who earned both the conference title and Golfer of the Year honors in 2021, earned his spot after winning the tournament’s qualifier on Jan. 10 by shooting a 6-under 66 with seven birdies and one bogey at The Champions Club in Stuart, Florida.

Greyhounds coach Chris Baloga said he’s not surprised that Berry is concentrating on golf instead of a potentially lucrative career in business.

“The thing about Brandon is, he just loves golf so much,” he said. “These other guys really like it, and they love to compete, and they want to be better, and they want to make a living doing it. But Brandon just loves playing, which I think will help him out in the long run more than most.”

Berry, who turned pro in July 2022 shortly after graduating with that MBA, is eager to test his skills against his peers.

“I would have killed for this opportunity last year, but I’ve also learned so much in the last year-and-a-half as a pro,” he said. “I’m just really excited to see where my game stacks up.”

Berry’s pro career has been marked by narrow misses. He made it to the second stage of Q-School for the PGA Tour in the fall of 2022 and 2023. He was one of four golfers who advanced to a playoff for last year’s qualifier for the Astara Golf Championship but lost on the first playoff hole. And he participated in five Monday qualifying tournaments for Korn Ferry Tour events in 2023 but fell short of going to a playoff or earning a spot outright.

“That was a little bit frustrating,” he conceded. “I played some really good golf last year, and it felt like I never really got a chance to have a showcase on the bigger stage.”

At the qualifier at the Champions Club in Florida, Berry birdied his first two holes before bogeying the third hole. But he rebounded with birdies on the fifth and eighth holes before making the turn and shooting a bogey-free 3-under on the back nine to finish with the qualifier-low score.

“It was great because I’ve had a ton of just excruciating close calls,” he said. “So I knew I was playing good ball, and I knew my day was coming, but it just felt really nice to get through that.”

Baloga pointed out that Berry faced several hurdles. The qualifier required a $500 entry fee, involved only one round of golf, and attracted about 100 golfers for two spots.

“So you’ve got to play great,” he said. “You can’t just show up and play good. I think all of those guys know they’ve got to show up and have their best day in order to make it out, which is really tough for already good players.”

Berry’s success in golf might not be shocking considering his family genes. His grandfather Richard played basketball and baseball at Northwestern, his father Alex played basketball at National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics-level Menlo College, and his younger brother Jake pitched at Virginia and signed an undrafted free-agent contract with the Cleveland Guardians in July.

Jake Berry, a 2 handicap who hits the ball 350 yards off the tee, said he sensed the grind his older brother was enduring last year.

“I know from talking to him, he was really close a bunch, and he had some really good rounds that just didn’t do it,” he said. “Sometimes it’s just not good enough. That’s how good all of the guys are out there. The one thing I think he has going for him is, he’s just really consistent, and he doesn’t really have any bad days that often because he hits the driver so well.”

Brandon Berry credited his improved play to a realization that he needed to prioritize his physical fitness. Last winter, he joined his brother and some other aspiring professional baseball players for a series of strength training sessions and now works out four to five days per week with a concentration on power, cardio and flexibility.

Berry said he can now touch his toes compared to his days at Loyola when he couldn’t get past his knees. He also said he has strengthened his back, hips and shoulders to eliminate ailments that bothered him when he was in college.

“When I worked out more, it seemed I shot better scores than when I wasn’t working out as much,” said Berry, who prefers Chipotle over other fast-casual or fast-food establishments. “So I definitely think there was a correlation.”

Parents Alex and Nancy Berry plan to travel to Colombia to watch Brandon at the Astara Golf Championship, but Jake’s pitching schedule will keep him in the states. But he said he would find a way to stream his older brother’s performance.

“We’re both just getting started,” Jake Berry said. “I think we’re both going to be in a good spot to pursue our careers going forward, and hopefully we can make it and keep progressing forward.”

If Brandon Berry can finish in the top 25 at the Astara Golf Championship, he will automatically earn a spot in the field for the Argentina Open Feb. 29-March 3 in Buenos Aires. As much as that is the objective, Berry said he will try to adhere to his philosophy of avoiding looking at the leaderboard until the end of his rounds.

“I’m just going to go out there and try my best and take it one shot at a time because I don’t really have any baseline,” he said. “I do trust that my game can compete with anyone when I’m playing well. So I’m just going to try my best to focus on myself and hopefully end up with a nice finish.”