UConn men's golfer Bradley Sawka of Ellington transferring to play senior season at Oklahoma

The stretch of tournament golf for Ellington's Bradley Sawka over the last calendar year has been quite good.

Last summer, he reached the final in the Connecticut Amateur, placed fourth in the Connecticut Open and the Four-Ball Championship and won three one-day tournaments to earn the Connecticut State Golf Association's Dick Tettlebach Player of the Year. 

Then came his junior season for the UConn men's golf team. A tie for first place in regulation at the UConn Invitational - he did lose in a sudden-death playoff - was Sawka's highest finish. He also tied for sixth at the Big East Conference meet. It was the best season at UConn for Sawka. 

About a month after the conference meet concluded, Sawka, now a rising senior, made one of the biggest decisions of his golf career: he entered the transfer portal. His next stop will be at the University of Oklahoma beginning this fall.

"Once I finished the year strong, it definitely went through my head about what opportunities I could have," Sawka said. "I talked everything over with my parents and we decided that it's probably best just to see how far I could take my golf game, to see how great I can play against the best competition."

Sawka finished his junior season with five top-10 finishes and a 70.7 per round average. He had 25 rounds at par or better, including a career-low of 66. He was both a PING All-Northeast Region and All-Big East Conference Second Team selection. 

Sawka had a stellar high school career at Ellington. He was the two-time GametimeCT Boys Golfer of the Year in back-to-back seasons (2022 and 2023). Then he was the Big East Freshman of the Year in 2024.

Transferring wasn't something Sawka said he thought about until later in his junior season. 

"It was definitely something that came on later because it was dependent on how well I played throughout the year," Sawka said. "And I also didn't know how it was going to work out when I entered the portal. I was definitely just exploring my options."

Sawka said he emailed a large number of college golf programs the morning after he entered the portal  The first school Sawka said reached out to him was Stanford. He also heard from TCU, the only other school he visited other than Oklahoma. He heard from other programs as well.

New Oklahoma coach Jonathan Moore was one of the first head coaches to call, Sawka said. Now he is on an SEC program that will be trying to reach the NCAA Championship meet for the 16th consecutive season. The Sooners finished 14th in this year's meet, the final one for the previous head coach, Ryan Hybl.

"Oklahoma is definitely a powerhouse program," Sawka said. "Obviously, they have a really good strength of schedule, really good facilities, and weather is definitely a big thing, you're able to play year round, so I'm definitely super-grateful for everything that UConn gave me, but I'm definitely super-excited for what Oklahoma has to offer."

Sawka had to have that conversation with UConn coach Dave Pezzino that he was departing the Huskies' program.

"Obviously, he was definitely upset that I left, which is very fair because I finally started producing very well for the team and he helped build me into the player that I am. …. It was nice to have his support and I'm very grateful for it."

Sawka is attempting to qualify for the U.S. Amateur this summer and will play in the Connecticut Open beginning July 27 at Country Club of Fairfield. He will head to Oklahoma in August.

"I'm super-excited playing against the best of the best," Sawka said. "Pretty much every single event we play in, we are playing against multiple top 10 teams. You're always playing against the best players. … To kind of see where you rank up against everybody else will be pretty cool to see, but I definitely would not have transferred unless I thought I could compete against the best."

This article originally published at UConn men's golfer Bradley Sawka of Ellington transferring to play senior season at Oklahoma.