Friend and caddie Jeff Donovan gives some insight into the defending champion of the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship

Editor’s Note: Brice Garnett enters this week’s Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship as the defending champ, having won for the first time on the PGA TOUR by four strokes a year ago over Keith Mitchell (recent winner of The Honda Classic). We’ve asked his lifelong friend and occasional caddie Jeff Donovan to provide some insight on Garnett, including 18 things you should know about him.

I’ve known Brice since he was 7 or 8 years old, having seen him out at Daviess County Country Club in Gallatin, Missouri. We began playing together frequently and pushing each other, and while I’m 12 years older than him, I would consider myself to be more of a very close friend than mentor. To be honest, I think we’ve taught each other a lot through the years.

As a kid, he was incredibly competitive but also very humble. It’s hard to grow up in tiny Gallatin (population 1,600) and have an attitude about yourself or the world around you. People around here kind of earn everything they have, and that’s just fine with us. He is a tireless worker, spending countless time on his game but probably had a bit too much fun when he turned pro, and he’d be the first to admit that. He’s done his best when he gets a small taste of success – winning on the Adams Tour, eGolf Tour, then the Web.com Tour and now the PGA TOUR.

Even though he has won tournaments all over, he always remained the same guy. When he comes home, he helps out at the golf course or lends a hand to anyone who asks. And while that might seem odd to some of you reading this, that’s just Brice.

I’ve caddied for him a few times over the years, on both the Web.com Tour and PGA TOUR, and when you’re inside the ropes, you can tell who fellow players and caddies like and dislike – it’s pretty obvious. To me, it seems that everyone likes Brice. He’s just a guy’s guy and someone you’d want to have a beer with. Just make sure you let him pick up the tab.

18 things on Brice Garnett

1. Brice was part of a group of kids at 9-hole Daviess County Country Club in Gallatin and they spent every summer day playing golf, jumping in the pool, and playing more golf. I’m sure there are more exotic places to grow up, but those kids had a blast.

2. At age 12, his father invited him to play alongside me and some others in the club’s money game with the “big-time” players, and as you can imagine, Brice began winning frequently. It wasn’t long before he was the best player out there.

3. No one really knows this, but Brice was a good drummer when he was a kid. He doesn’t play much anymore, but if he’s driving and a good song comes on, he’ll play drums on the steering wheel with perfect form.

4. In high school, he dreamed of playing for the University of Missouri, but the reply letter from the team’s coach said he could “try and walk on” and hinted that he might not be Division I material. Brice kept that letter with him throughout his college career at Missouri Western State University.

5. I helped Brice land an unpaid internship the summer after his senior year in high school for a bank in Kansas City. After three months of long hours, his boss gave him a $25 gift card to Applebee’s. That’s it. It’s at that point that he realized he wanted to be a professional golfer.

6. His nickname is Skillet, but no one knows where it came from. These days, he mostly goes by Pro.

7. Mi Mexico, a restaurant in Gallatin, has named a drink after him, the Skillet: Vodka, Fresca and a splash of cranberry. It’s also a popular drink in Valdosta, Georgia, where Brice currently lives.

8. Brice hosts his longtime Gallatin friends at TPC Sawgrass for a week-long guys trip each year. We always order plenty of “skillets” to drink at the club. I’ll leave it at that.

9. At MWSU, he won 12 titles from 2003 through 2006, including six during the 2004-05 season. He was a Division II first-team All-America selection in 2005, a three-time All-American overall and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2012. Sorry, Tigers, but revenge tastes pretty sweet.

10. After turning pro in 2006, he won the Mary Bird Perkins Open on the Adams Tour in 2010, then won the River Hills Classic and Southern Open in back-to-back starts on the eGolf Tour in 2011. I think that’s when it began to hit him that he was really good.

11. Brice had a successful run of Monday qualifiers on the Web.com Tour in 2011 but was tiring of the grind. His dad said he should go to Chattanooga to try to Monday qualify one last time. He did and wound up finishing second in the event to secure his card for the 2012 season.

12. He spent 2012 and 2013 on the Web.com Tour before finishing in The 25 in 2013 to earn his PGA TOUR card for the 2013-14 season. After the 2015-16 season, he lost his card and had to return to the Web.com Tour. That was a huge gut punch. It’s hard to get a taste of TOUR life and then lose it.

13. In 2017, he reassessed what he was doing with his swing and his preparation and began working with a coach for the first time in his life, John Tillery (he still works with him).

14. When Brice led wire-to-wire at Puntacana last year, there were 3-4 different watch parties in Gallatin. I stayed at my house as I’m a bit of a nervous Nellie and was on the edge of my seat all day. We all knew it was a life-changing event for him. I’m not sure if anyone was very effective the next day at work after he won.

15. In the winter, even as a pro, he would take a range mat and lift the door in the maintenance shed at Daviess County Country Club to hit balls onto the course because it was 20 degrees outside. This helped to prompt the move to Valdosta for warmer temperatures. It was hard to see him leave, but we all knew it was best.

16. The Club has a board of directors, a superintendent and two kids who work part-time – that is it. There is no irrigation in the fairways and the course has zero bunkers. A perfect training ground for a future PGA TOUR winner!

17. Regardless of the success he’s had, Brice has remained the same guy as the kid at Daviess County Country Club. When he comes home, roughly once a year with his schedule, he’ll hop on a mower to help the course out or play with some of the area kids. Selfless is an understatement.

18. Brice set the course record of 59 when he was in college, birdieing the last three holes to do so. I played him that day and wound up texting one of our friends to say I shot 67 and lost by eight. How about that?