Michigan Golf Journal January 2018

Stuard’s college assistant coach at Oakland (1996-06). He said Stuard’s focus and quiet disposition has served the player well. “Brian is a quiet, shy, inward person,” Beltz said. “The easiest way to embarrass Brian is to introduce him as a PGA Touring pro. And I think that’s one of his inner strengths. He’s a very strong family person. I just think it’s the whole value of the person; he’s a very good person with very good values. “In college we never had to talk to him about go practice this; he understood his weaknesses and he’d go practice his weaknesses. And he does that still today, only at a higher level.” Reaching that higher level brought Stuard face-to- face with many of golf’s greats early this decade. “In my first year in 2010 I remember going to the tournament in Hawaii and the first time I walked down the range, there was Ernie Els right there and Vijay Singh over there and a number of guys you watched on TV growing up (was age 27 at the time) and I thought, ‘man, what are you doing out here?’ At that point I realized I couldn’t think about that and instead just focus on what I did to get here,” Stuard said. “I just try to stick to what I’m doing and so far it’s worked out pretty well.” By Tom Lang Michigan Golf Journal