PGA Tour
Wesley Bryan's bad case of FOMO for Tyson-Paul leads to incredible 'career' round
Wesley Bryan hits a drive in the third round of the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Alex Slitz
It’s fairly obvious that Wesley Bryan doesn’t take the results of his PGA Tour career all that seriously these days. Since Wesley and brother George started their popular YouTube channel, Bryan Bros Golf, they’ve been just as happy traveling the world to create fun ccontent as working to collect tournament checks and trophies.
Need evidence? Look no further than the circumstances of Friday night and Saturday morning. The Bryan boys were both entered in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, but George missed the cut. Wesley was well out of contention entering the weekend, and rather than resting up for a predicted battle with heavy winds on Saturday, he had a bad case of FOMO.
“I'll be honest, woke up this morning on very, very little sleep,” Bryan said. “Stayed up for the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson match and that didn't finish until about, shoot, 2 in the morning. It was one of those spectacle events that I just felt I needed to watch.” (The match was almost unwatchable as Paul won in a decision and both fighter were heavily booed.)
Imagine, then, that Bryan's expectations were almost non-existent. And that, of course, is a dangerous state, when your brain turns off and the instincts take over. The result for Bryan: Amid early gusts of more than 30 mph, he shot 29 on the front nine, made two eagles and six birdies overall, and shot 10-under-par 61 on the Port Royal Golf Course. A “career round” he said of the effort that got him to 13 under overall and just three shots off the lead. Bryan, 34, will compete Sunday for his second tour title, the first coming seven years ago in the RBC Heritage.
“Got out on the golf course, it blew for the first couple holes, and then we had a few holes where it laid down pretty nice for us,” Bryan explained. “Anyway, started making birdies, then I guess I kind of woke up at the end and I guess it never really stopped.”
There was, in fact, a secret ingredient to the recipe of this day. “I felt like these type of conditions, really for my entire golfing career, I've really enjoyed wind,” Bryan said. “It just brings out a little bit more creativity."
“Then today, nobody knows … when a 61s going to come. That's just kind of a career day. Hopefully, we can … get in the mix tomorrow on the back nine. That would be the ultimate goal.”
Starting Saturday on the 10th tee, Bryan birdied four the first seven holes and then eagled the par-5 17th. He added birdies on the second and sixth, and capped the day with an eagle at the par-5 seventh.
George and Wesley Bryan speak to the media at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Carmen Mandato
Bryan played this season on the exempt status as a past champion, and the results have not been only so-so. Bermuda marks his 17th start, and he’s made only seven cuts, though there was a close call in April when Bryan finished solo second in the Corales Puntacana Championship. But that's not enough to overcome a bunch of missed weekends, and he's not close to re-earning his card. He finished 156th in the FedEx Cup and currently stands 128th in the fall series.
That almost seems of little consequence, considering how much he and George are enjoying their other jobs on YouTube.
“Oh, I love it. Probably way more now than I ever have.” Wesley said. “Through the YouTube stuff, getting to spend a lot more time with George and hang out and travel the world and play golf with him and some of our really good buds, so that side has been a lot of fun.
“Playing out here is, at least this year, been a little more fun than it has been as far as playing-wise, but also just some of the friendships that over the last couple years.”
Bryan ticked off the names of Carson Young, Sam Stevens, Akshay Bhatia and Tom Whitney.
“Just really close friendships that I've built out here; I felt like there was a lot of years where there was just some turnover," Bryan said. "Now that I've got three kids, they don't travel as much as they used to, so getting to stay and hang out to get to know these guys a little better has been awesome. So having a blast with it.”