Wesley Bryan turned a lot of heads on the internet as one half of the trick shot duo, the Bryan Brothers. He, and his brother George, gained a lot of popularity making the impossible on the golf course a reality. These days though, Wes is turning heads with a different facet of his game. All of it.
In 2016, Bryan, a former college golfer at South Carolina decided to give the PGA Tour a try. After finishing 9th at the Web.com Tour qualifying school to earn his card for the 2016 season, he needed just three starts to earn his first professional win at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open.
From there, he had one of the most successful seasons in Web.com Tour history. He won two more times and earned an instant battlefield promotion on to the PGA Tour, becoming just the 11th golfer ever to do so. He was also named 2016 Web.com Tour Player of the Year.
Heading into this week, Bryan had yet to notch that first win on the PGA Tour, though he found himself close at times. Earlier this year, he strung together three consecutive top ten finishes at the Genesis Open (T4), Honda Classic (T4), and Valspar Championship (T7).
“The times I’ve gotten into contention I’ve been able to handle my nerves really well, I’ve been able to hit the shots when I’ve needed to,” Bryan said earlier in the week. “One of the weeks Dustin was doing his thing and nobody was catching him at Riviera, and Honda I didn’t play my best golf but Rickie really separated himself on Saturday and Sunday, so those are the two times I got closest and those are two of the best players in the world.”
He also mentioned that he felt his game wasn’t quite where it needed to be to get that first PGA Tour win yet though.
“I found out I’m not that good yet,” Bryan added. “Hopefully one day in the near future I can establish myself in that category, but right now I’ve got some work to do. … If I want to be one of them I need to do a little better on the weekends.”
Well, at least for this week, Bryan’s game was good enough as he shot weekend rounds of 68 and 67 to earn his first ever PGA Tour victory not too far from his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.
The now Augusta, Georgia resident will have quite the home game come next April when he gets to drive down Magnolia Lane as a PGA Tour winner.
“This is the best case scenario winning this week,” Bryan said after the win. “Now I’ve got 51 weeks to get ready for Augusta in my own city. So that’s like, honestly, a dream come true. Call it my home golf course for the next 51 weeks.”