When Brian Kortan talks about the Texas A&M men’s golf program, his words are less about swing planes or strokes gained and more about people. “Our culture—we’re close. We’re a close-knit group,” he says.

“I grew up around a coach. My dad was a coach … I was always around his teams. And I think that kind of influenced me in terms of how I eventually knew I was going to be a coach … I wanted to be a coach where the guys looked at me as a mentor, as a figure in their life that no matter what was going on, I would be there to help them.”

That ethos was sharpened during his years as an assistant under former Aggies head coach J.T. Higgins, who led Texas A&M to the 2009 NCAA national championship. Higgins, Kortan recalls, taught him never to hold grudges and to recognize that college athletes need more than fairways and greens. “He believed in the college experience … You couldn’t be scared of it. You had to understand your guys were going to have a college experience and that that was okay,” Kortan explains.

The lessons of both men have become part of the Aggies’ identity. Kortan has carried forward the “no grudges” mantra, ensuring tough conversations end on an upswing. “I’ve got to be able to have that conversation with them. And then I’ve got to be able to tap them on the back and say, hey, love you. I want you to be successful. We’ll do everything we can to help you.”

That blend of honesty, toughness, and compassion now runs through the program’s DNA. Kortan emphasizes authentic relationships with parents and recruits, promising more than transactional coaching: “I didn’t want anything to be transactional. I wanted to be here for them, good, bad, or indifferent.” 

Few players embody Kortan’s philosophy more vividly than Sam Bennett, the Madisonville, Texas native who blossomed under his watch. Bennett arrived at A&M a raw but gifted player. By his junior year, he had endured personal heartbreak: the death of his father, who had battled Alzheimer’s.

Kortan became a stabilizing force. “It was tough to go through for him. And I was glad I was there for him. … There’s no replacing a father. I knew that, but I knew I needed to be there and be present in his life,” Kortan recalls.

The mentorship coincided with Bennett’s surge to the national stage. In 2022, he captured the U.S. Amateur Championship at Ridgewood Country Club. The victory secured him invitations to the Masters, U.S. Open, and Open Championship.

At Augusta in 2023, Kortan did something he never imagined: he carried Bennett’s bag at Augusta National. “That’s a bucket list … man, you don’t even understand how cool that was,” he said. “We’re walking around, playing golf at Augusta and he’s on TV every shot. And I’m trying to make it up and down those hills. Yeah, it was cool. I’ll never forget it.”

Bennett repaid the faith with history. He opened with back-to-back rounds of 68—bogey-free on Thursday—becoming the first amateur in three decades to post such a start at the Masters. He sat tied for third through 36 holes, the best position for an amateur since 2003. “I was so impressed with how well they treated Sam,” Kortan says of playing partners Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler. “Of course he earned it playing the way he played, but those guys were great.”

For Kortan, who lost his own father shortly after college, the parallels were powerful. “We were very similar in a lot of ways,” he says. “I spent a lot of time with him … and yeah, it was a unique thing that worked out.”

Kortan’s Aggies carried that culture into the 2024–25 season. The fall was rocky—“we just didn’t really get finer footing until the very end of the fall,” he says—but a January training trip to California sparked a turnaround.

“From that point forward, we never really took a step backwards. We just kept building, winning a few times, competing very well … they kept the fight on and just turned into a really good team at the end.” The Aggies finished as runners-up at the SEC Championship and advanced through NCAA regionals before placing 11th at the national championship.

Along the way, they relied not on “household names” but on what Kortan calls “hard workers” who “fought their tails off.” One player nearly stole the national spotlight. Thai senior Phichaksn “Pichak” Maichon contended right until the end for the NCAA individual crown at La Costa. “He came to us as a relative unknown and turned into one of the best players in college golf,” Kortan said. “He had nine top tens his last 10 events and with a couple of wins in there.”

Maichon ultimately faltered with late bogeys but left A&M as an All-American and one of its most consistent ball-strikers. His journey to College Station traces back to Kortan’s recruiting instincts. After seeing Maichon compete in junior worlds, Kortan brought him for a visit. “His dad really liked it. They felt safe with his son being at Texas A&M and them being in Thailand. … He’s only gone home twice in four years. It just kind of was meant to be in a way.”

As A&M prepares for the upcoming season, Kortan faces a period of transition. The program has lost Maichon and the reliable Michael Heidelbaugh, but adds transfers Kris Kuvaas (Pepperdine) and Jacob Sosa (Texas), as well as freshman Shiv Parmar, a top-15 national recruit. Returners include Wheaton Ennis, Aaron Pounds, and Jaime Montojo, who qualified for the 2023 Open Championship at Hoylake.

“It’s a different roster. It’ll have a little different feel to it,” Kortan says. “We’ve been fortunate to have kind of a lead horse the last few years … we’ll get it figured out. These guys will work hard and we’ll build like we did this year and keep getting better.”

Even with looming NCAA roster limits, Kortan insists on loyalty. “I’m not going to cut players as long as they’re working hard to do the things they’re supposed to. We basically invited them to be part of our program, so I’m not going to be the one that invites them to leave.”

His mantra remains steady: be the best when it matters most. “We stay very routine-oriented … we’re building stronger golfers throughout the year. We work with the mental side of the game quite often … and if we continue to do the right things at a very high level, it’ll bear out in the end.”

For Coach Kortan, the measure of success is not only in wins but in the young men he shapes. “There’s no guarantee that it’ll happen again this year,” he says. “But that’s who we are. That’s how our program is. And I’m not surprised when they play great because they’ve definitely earned it.”