Adam Breen, a first-year professional golfer on the Sunshine Tour, discusses his love for the sport, his rise through the ranks and life as a professional golfer.
Adam Breen warming up during the Vodacom Origins of Golf at De Zalze Golf Club in Stellenbosch. Breen finished T11 in the tournament, which is his best finish on the Sunshine Tour to date. “I’ve been playing some relatively consistent golf. Really good in some spots and really bad in others,” says Breen. “Getting used to tour life and getting into the rhythm of things has really contributed to an upward trend.” PHOTO: Cody Hansen
“I was introduced to golf at three years old. My dad used to take me to Atlantic Beach to go hit balls at the driving range. He tells me I wasn’t really interested in hitting any golf balls, I just wanted to build sandcastles in the bunker,” says Adam Breen, a 24-year-old professional golfer on the Sunshine Tour.
Breen took up the game when he was in grade five, but he says his passion for golf really developed during a school holiday in grade nine.
“My dad used to drop us off every day at the Wanderers Golf Club. We used to be there from 7:30 till 16:30, whenever he or my mom picked me up,” he says. “That’s really where I fell in love with the game.”
A steady rise
As a junior golfer, Breen says he never really stood out.
”I won one or two junior events that we used to play in the holidays, but I didn’t win a lot. There were lots of junior stars and guys that were really good at a young age and I just wasn’t in that league,” he says.
But university brought about a change in him, says Breen.
“I fell in love with the driving range at the University of Pretoria (Tuks), and that became my second home. I was there every single day. And I just practised and practised,” he says.
Around this time Breen started to play more amateur golf on both the GolfRSA circuit and internally at Tuks. It was about being the best golfer he could be while getting his degree, he says.
Adam Breen, a professional golfer on the Sunshine Tour, says Ernie Els was his golfing hero growing up. “I still have signed hats from him from when we used to go to the Nedbank Golf Challenge. We used to make a point of following Ernie around when he came because that’s who I wanted to be eventually,” he says. PHOTO: Cody Hansen
A turning point
In 2018, Breen met his best friend, Gareth Sargent, who he describes as the hardest worker he has ever met.
“He really set an example of what a work ethic looks like, because at that point in my life I didn’t really have a work ethic for golf. I practised a lot and I had fun, but I had never really structured it.”
After structuring his routine, Breen started seeing results in national events.
“I had top 10s, had a top five, and I really started kicking on and shooting good scores. And I’ve got to attribute a lot of that to being around Gareth. He really helped me realise that I could be out there with the best and compete.”
Two steps back
In 2020, while completing his honours degree, Breen herniated a disc in his lower back, which he describes as a huge setback.
“I couldn’t play golf for almost eight or nine months. So in the midst of that, I thought I was never going to play golf competitively again,” he says. “Thankfully that turned out not to be the case.”
After recovering, Breen decided to dedicate 2021 to only playing amateur golf to see how well he could do.
“I played really nicely, I got up to about 11th in the national amateur rankings. I didn’t win anything on that circuit unfortunately but I had a lot of close calls, which gave me that little bit of hope and belief that maybe I could take this to the next step,” he says.
He gave himself a window of two years to get onto the Sunshine Tour, and began the wait for Sunshine Tour Q-school – which sees hundreds of elite amateur and professional golfers compete over two stages of golf to gain Sunshine Tour status for the following season.
Adam Breen is a first-year professional golfer on the Sunshine Tour. After turning professional in April 2022, Breen won his first professional event on the Altron Big Easy Tour in June. “I haven’t won much in my career. And that week was pure carnage. It was like three degrees Celsius, blowing 40kph, which is unheard of in Johannesburg. I managed to keep it together and come home and I thought I’d maybe have a nice shout at top five or whatever, and a couple of groups after me came in and I found out I won the golf tournament,” he says. PHOTO: Cody Hansen
Taking the plunge
Breen went into the first stage of Q-school with very low expectations, having got Covid-19 while visiting his mother in England, which decreased his preparation time to just a few days.
“I ended up playing very nicely and finishing two shots off the lead in a tie for fourth or fifth. So that was great and it took a lot of the pressure off me.”
The result meant Breen qualified for the final stage of Q-school, which was “more intense” than he had imagined.
After rounds of 70, 67 and 71, Breen had set himself up well. “I went into the last day of Q-school, with top 25 and ties getting their Sunshine Tour card, in second place.”
He got off to a good start in the final round, leading the golf tournament after three holes.
“On the next hole I hit it in the water, made double bogey, and it was downhill from there.”
Breen bogeyed hole nine and 10, triple bogeyed hole 12, and bogeyed hole 14, plummeting him down the leaderboard.
“At that point, Anja, my girlfriend, was walking with me. And I looked at her, and she could just see the pure panic in my eyes. I’ve got to thank her and my caddie Charlie at the time for keeping me calm.”
“I managed to birdie the 15th coming in and par the rest. I finished one over for the tournament and two over got a card.”
Breen recalls making a six foot putt for par on 18 to secure his card.
“It was just sheer relief. I get goosebumps thinking about it now,” he says. “I just buckled into tears in the corner of the green. It was a childhood dream come true. I always wanted to play professional golf but I never believed that I could. I just couldn’t believe it.”
“The long-term goals for me would be that I want to be on the bigger tours. I want to be playing in Europe, hopefully playing in America one day, climbing up the world rankings and playing all the majors. I’ve got a great platform on the Sunshine Tour. We’ve got Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned events with the DP World Tour, and good partnerships to develop a career. I’m still 24, got a long career ahead of me if I want to do this for a while,” says Adam Breen, a professional golfer on the Sunshine Tour. PHOTO: Cody Hansen
In the words of others
“Adam is a passionate, hardworking and driven man,” says Ethan Breen, Adam’s younger brother. “There was never a doubt in my mind that he had the hard work, determination and dedication to get to where he is.”
“Adam’s the type of guy that gets up at 05:00, grafts hard throughout the day, comes home at 18:00, helps me with all the chores, listens to the long stories of what’s going on in my life, and goes to bed with a smile because he can’t wait to do it the next day again,” says Anja du Toit, Adam’s girlfriend of two years.
Turning professional
Having secured his playing rights on the Sunshine Tour for the 2022/23 season, Breen had a difficult start to life on tour, missing his first three cuts.
However, he says getting more comfortable in his surroundings has made life easier.
Now more than halfway through the season, Breen sits 86th on the Sunshine Tour order of merit out of 174 players. He has also moved up more than 800 places on the world rankings.
Breen says the best and worst part of being a professional golfer is being away from home.
“I get to travel and see unbelievable parts of the country, but in the last three and a half months I’ve probably had a combined 14 days at home,” he says. “It takes its toll on you, but I’m still not complaining.”
Adam Breen, a professional golfer on the Sunshine Tour, describes what his perfect day would look like. AUDIO: Cody Hansen
Breen’s main goal for the season was to retain his Sunshine Tour card. And thanks to some high finishes on the Altron Big Easy Tour – which included his first professional victory at Randpark Golf Club – he has already secured his Sunshine Tour playing rights for the 2023/24 season.
In future he hopes to win on the Sunshine Tour and play professional golf overseas.
“I pinch myself every day. I’m so lucky to play this game for a living and it’s a challenge day in and day out. It tests you and brings out the best and the worst in you,” he says.