DETROIT (9/18/2020) -- University of Detroit Mercy men's golf senior Scott Sparks has had a decorated career as a Titan so far and has surged past his brother, former Titan golfer Brian Sparks '10, on the course in a number of facets, but he is missing one thing his brother has -- a championship ring.

Two to be exact. 

"Whenever someone says, hey your little brother is better, he always goes, 'I have two rings and he doesn't have any right now' so that is something I have to deal with. Kind of the jab in the ribs from him," said Scott Sparks. 

"He has quite a few things over me in his career, but I like to remind him every once in a while that I have two rings and he doesn't have one at the moment," said Brian Sparks. "Hopefully he is able to get one, but I will always have two and he won't be able to get me there."

Scott was the Horizon League Freshman of the Year and also Second Team All-Horizon League in his career thus far, while currently standing 12th in school history with a 75.81 average in 96 rounds of golf, posting 10 top-20 finishes and a pair of top-10 efforts.

"I got a head start in college golf because of following my brother," said Scott. "He taught me a lot of different lessons. He told me not to go into Division I college golf thinking you're going to be the guy because everyone that gets recruited to play at this level is good and they were the guy at their high school. When I got to college, I kind of had that mentality that I had to prove myself and that helped me."

Being 10 years younger, Scott was the little brother that followed his brother around and wanted to see and experience what he was doing. 
 

"I am 10 years younger than Brian and I had to look up to him and see what he was able to do before he even got to college," said Scott. "His high school and junior golf, I was able to see everything from a young age."

What Scott saw was a top-notch golfer and a great student of the game to look up to. Brian had a great career in high school and the junior circuit and when he came to the Titans, he was a steady performer who always picked up his game when it counted the most. 

"He relied heavily on his touch around the greens, " said former men's golf coach Mark Engel. "He is a good student of the game who manages the golf course well and knows how to play within himself."

In high school, Brian finished second at the Division III State Championships as a senior for Lutheran North in Macomb, Michigan. He was selected All-State all four years and was fifth at the state championships as a junior. He earned a berth in the 2004 U.S. Junior Championship and was third at the Michigan Junior Amateur in 2005.  

At Detroit Mercy, he posted a 78.7 average in 58 rounds of golf as a Titan and was a starter on a pair of championship teams as a freshman in 2007 and a senior in 2010. He always played his best when it counted the most. As a freshman, he tallied a 1-over 73 in the final round of the NCAA West Regional at Arizona State. As a senior, he shot a 75 in round one and a 74 in round two that both counted and helped the Titans grab a lead after 36 holes at the 2010 Horizon League Championship. In the NCAA Central Regional that year, he carded an opening-round 2-over 70 for the best Titan score in round one at Notre Dame. 

"There was always that drive that I wanted to be better than my brother," said Scott. "He was an unbelievable player. He was always the consistent guy in the line-up and to be on two conference championships, playing in the top five, you have to be good and playing well. When I came here, I had a couple of goals, one was to be Freshman of the Year and I did that. I wanted to play in every tournament and I wanted to be a consistent guy in our line-up and I have been able to do all that, but he has those two championships."

"I use to take him to a lot of his tournaments," said Brian. "He really started to play in them at 10 or 11. He is a pretty aggressive golfer and I am a little more conservative, but I was trying to teach him when to lay back and when to go for it. He has definitely got better at that and just continues to improve. Growing up, he would tag along to the range and even my senior year, he was there at the NCAA Tournament at Notre Dame. He was only 12 at that time, but he took it in and I think that helped him as he was going through high school."

The brothers came from a golf family and the love of golf as a family helped both pursue that love to a college scholarship. 

"Golf runs in our family," said Scott. "My mom's side, everyone really plays and my grandpa was a member of a country club and we both started in a junior league there. My dad played golf his whole life and his brother was a teaching professional in the Detroit area. My dad saw the interest level in (Brian) when he was 10 or 11 years old and when he was playing juniors, I was around six or seven and starting to play."

Both golfers had the opportunity to play collegiate golf at a number of programs and each chose Detroit Mercy. Brian had the benefit of knowing a bit about the programs through some teammates, while Scott saw first hand what the Titans had to offer.

"It was a winning program and I was familiar with a couple of guys on the team and there was a chance to play and start for a championship team to go with the education that the University provided," said Brian. "I thought Detroit Mercy would be a good place for Scott, especially with the winning tradition and what it had to offer. It has one of the better home courses to practice at with the Detroit Golf Club and is close to home and close to family were all strong selling points."

"It was fun to follow Brian and to make the same decision that he did to come here," said Scott. "When I was getting recruited, he stayed out of it mostly. He wanted me to make my own decision. I had some bigger looks in schools and schools down south that were interested, but I was very comfortable with Detroit Mercy with my brother going there. I was able to go to a lot of his tournaments with our parents when he was there. They had some unbelievable players on his team and when I thought of playing college golf, Detroit Mercy was always there. I knew the University had a great academic position to offer me and being from Shelby Township, I was close to home and that support system and my parents were close by to come to my tournaments the same way they came to all of his."

Brian earned a business degree with a concentration in finance and is currently a licensed CPA and a senior manager at UHY -- a Detroit accounting firm -- and with his busy life and Scott in college, the two don't get a chance to play a lot of golf anymore, but when they do, that sibling rivalry still comes out. 

"It is still very competitive," said Brian. "I might have to play the tee boxes and him the tips, but there are still a couple of times that I still can get him. We don't have a lot of chances to play, but always have fun when we do."

"We do play, I wouldn't say it's a ton since we are both busy," added Scott. "We actually played in the winter over Christmas break last year, about six rounds in Michigan, which was great. It wasn't the greatest conditions, but we had the golf course to ourselves and it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of heated matches and not so much brotherly love."

Scott is hoping that he can play his senior year in the spring and feels that, with the team the Titans have, he can finally break through and get the one thing that he avoided him so far in the red, white and blue. 

"The one thing he has on me is a team championship, he has two of them, but I think the team this year and the guys we have that are working hard, we have a really good chance at winning it all," said Scott.