Brandon Gillis aims to achieve balance on, off field
Gillis transferred to Rhody from Wake Forest and has been the leader for Rhody the last two years. PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
When looking at the University of Rhode Island golf team, it is incredibly hard to not see the impact of Redshirt Senior Brandon Gillis.
The reigning Atlantic 10 golfer of the week and New Hampshire native has made a name for himself in Rhode Island, backed by a year full of career highs in 2021.
Gillis’ journey to URI was unorthodox in its path. After only playing in three events during his freshman year at Wake Forest, Gillis decided it was time for a change in location.
“I decided I might want to stay a little closer to home,” Gillis said.
This smaller geographic range led Gillis to show interest in Rhode Island, before he was offered a scholarship.
Gillis has been a star for the Rams this year, most recently earning 3rd place at the Villanova Fall Invite to lead his Ram team to an overall victory for the weekend. This has been a pattern throughout the past two seasons for Gillis.
However, Gillis said that his main interest in URI stemmed from the golf program itself.
“I love everything about URI, and it’s a good golf program and there’s a lot of discipline on the team and I think that is something I needed,” Gillis said.
That discipline stems from Head Coach Gregg Burke, who always preaches discipline in his 12 years with Rhody. Burke has developed a relationship with Gillis that reaches beyond golf.
“He’s become like a son to me,” Burke said.
Gillis attributes being at URI to his improvement as a golfer. Since his freshman year at Wake Forest, his average strokes per round has dropped by 5.
“I think [URI] has taught me a lot about how to balance not just things on the course but off the course as well,” Gillis said. “Just treating every day as an opportunity to get better, and really being patient on the golf course and patient in life as well.”
That balance comes into account when talking about Gillis’ classroom performance as well. Gillis was a 2022 GCAA All-American Scholar, making him one of college golf’s best students.
Gillis believes that his academic success stems simply from time management and responsibility.
“It’s a lot of working on the road, we have pretty long van rides, so that helps with getting a lot of schoolwork done,” Gillis said. “But really it’s just reaching out to professors and forming good relationships with them and usually they understand that we can’t be in class some of the time.”
Now in his fifth year of college, Gillis is determined to continue on his path of balance and success in his student-athlete lifestyle.
“I’d like to keep doing what I’m doing,” Gillis said. “Hopefully I have another good year academically. I think usually that can translate into playing some good golf when you’re feeling good about yourself and how you’re balancing everything.”
Gillis will continue in his competitive swing this upcoming weekend at the UConn Invitational at Greathorse, hoping to get some homework done along the way.