Brisky's true calling takes him from course

Memories from former Pan American University and PGA golfer Mike Brisky’s career can be recalled through old scorecards, photographs and honors.

On Saturday, his collegiate career will be remembered when he is inducted into the UTPA Hall of Fame. The sixth class includes former track and field/cross country coach Reid Harter, former baseball players  Ron Edquist and Jesse Trinidad, former track and field standout Monica Wesley Swift and Hall of Honor recipient former Pan American College President Ralph F. Schilling.

In Brisky’s mind, though, his athletic triumphs are nothing compared to what he does now. 

In 2003 after over a decade of playing professionally, Brisky chose to do something he sees as reverberating much longer than any single shot on a golf course.

After leaving the Nationwide Tour, Brisky became an associate pastor of marriage & family services at Gateway Church in Southlake. With his wife Judy, Brisky aids couples in preserving their marriages.

“Now, I feel like I’m doing something that I was meant to do,” Brisky said. “Golf is something I did. It really didn’t give meaning to who I am. It’s not that someone can’t play golf and find meaning in it. That’s not what I’m saying.  For me, I felt like there was something deeper. The Lord had this for me.”

Over the course of his career, Brisky earned almost $2 million and forced two tournament playoffs, failing to win both. He still remembers how J.L. Lewis forced a sudden-death playoff in the 1999 John Deere Classic by making a birdie on the 72nd hole of the tournament.

With the Broncs, Brisky recorded multiple top 10 finishes, including three of them at the Pan American University Golf Classic in 1983, ’84 and ’86. In ’85, he fired a 67, which is the third-lowest single-round score by a Broncs golfer.

“Everything I did played a part in where I am at today,” Brisky said. “(Going to Pan American) shaped me to who I was and where I am right now.”

Toward the end of playing career, Brisky was dealing with injuries and his sons Jacob and Joel were growing up fast. Brisky began thinking about life after competitive golf, wanting more of a normal life for him and his family while doing something that was meaningful. 

During an 18-month stint away from touring because of two separate injuries from 2001-2003, Brisky volunteered at a church, leaving him with the desire to be a family pastor.

When he decided to step away, Judy said the decision was not a difficult one.

“When he felt in his heart that it was time to walk off the course, he had a lot of peace about it,” Judy said. “We both did it. We knew it was perfect timing. It was really not that hard to say, ‘OK, this is our last tournament.”

By the fall of ’03, Brisky was in ministry. And like the effect he can have on couples, it sounds like this is more permanent than his golf career.

“But really, that’s what this is all about,” Brisky said in 2010. “It’s not about winning The Masters or the (U.S.) Open. Those are nice things that create some fun in life. But going back home and relating to my wife, that’s where the rubber meets the road and that’s where God really wants me to focus my attention on and with my boys as they grow up and equipping them to be men.”