Scored a top-25 last week; will play in PGA Championship next

Brendan Steele’s university alma mater paid tribute to his athletic prowess by inducting him into its Athletics Hall of Fame this year. The Idyllwild native graduated from University of California, Riverside, in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

At UCR, Brendan led his Highlanders golf team to Big West conference championships in 2004 and 2005, and he was named to the all-conference first team three successive years. In his senior year, he averaged subpar golf over the entire season. He holds UCR golf records in at least five categories, including career-scoring average at 72.27 strokes (almost a full stroke better than the runner-up), single-season tournament wins with three in the 2001-02 season, career tournament wins at five, single-season subpar rounds at 21, and career rounds of par or better at 69.

Brendan turned pro the year he graduated, and in 2011, his first year on the big tour, he won his first PGA Tour tournament, the Valero Texas Open. He garnered a second win in the Safeway Open earlier in this his seventh season on the PGA Tour. He currently is 15th on this year’s PGA Tour FedExCup points list, and is the 53rd-ranked golfer in the world in the Official World Golf Ranking.

Last week, Brendan picked up another top-25 finish at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. That gives him 10 top-25s this fine season, including four top-10s and a win.

Brendan plays this week in another major — the $10.5 million PGA Championship on the Quail Hollow course in Charlotte, North Carolina. He tees it up on Thursday at 5:50 a.m. PDT and Friday at 11 a.m. PDT, playing both days with Hudson Swafford of the U.S. and Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark.