Tyler Collet’s mindset was as pure as his golf game. Collet’s approach during the 2025 PGA Professional Championship was about playing smart but aggressive golf over the difficult Wanamaker Course at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on April 27–30. Make birdies when given the opportunity, but don’t take risks that result in bogeys or worse.
The result was a record-setting performance by Collet, a 29-year PGA of America Assistant Professional at John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Florida. Collet cruised to a 10-shot victory after finishing at 15-under 272. It was the largest margin of victory in the Championship’s 57-year history, eclipsing Matt Dobyns’ eight-shot win in 2012.
“My mindset all week was not to play not to win,” Collet said. “We had a game plan, and we stuck to it religiously. We played the smart, safe shots. Tiger (Woods) won 82 championships by playing to the middle of the greens, and that’s what we did this week.”
Collet led 20 PGA of America Professionals to make the Corebridge Financial Team by qualifying for the 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s the fourth time he’s earned a spot in the PGA Championship in the last five years.
The smile on Collet’s face when he got to lift the Walter Hagen Cup said it all: pure joy after his virtuoso performance.
“It means everything to hold this trophy,” explained Collet, who was embraced by wife Sadie and 2-year-old son Theo on the 18th green. “I was looking at the names on it. There are some really spectacular people there. It means the world.”
Collet made history by becoming the fourth wire-to-wire PGA Professional Champion. He was tied for the lead with 2014 champion Michael Block after opening with a 7-under 65, pushed it to three shots after 36 holes, seven after 54 and double digits at the end. Jesse Droemer, a PGA of America Teaching Professional at Riverbend Country Club in Sugar Land, Texas, was a distant second (74-282).
“That was next-level stuff,” Block, the PGA of America Head Professional at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, California – who finished tied for third – told Collet.
In addition to having his name on the Walter Hagen Cup and earning a spot in the season’s second major, Collet earned the first prize of $66,700 from the $750,000 purse. He made only six bogeys all week, more than offsetting them with an eagle and 19 birdies. Collet bogeyed the final two holes, when the outcome was already decided, but even then he closed with an impressive 25-foot bogey putt on No. 18 for a 72.
