Gamecock great Wesley Bryan sidelined from golf with injury. It’s ‘perfect timing’

Wesley Bryan found a silver lining in what he called “a speed bump” that has interrupted his professional golf career.

Bryan underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder in mid-January and began physical therapy on Thursday. The forced absence provides the opportunity to connect with the new addition to the household: daughter Hadley, born Dec. 15.

“Perfect timing,” he said. “I get to play with and watch a beautiful baby girl develop and grow.”

The past couple of months have been eventful ones for Bryan and wife Elizabeth. In addition to Hadley’s birth and Wesley’s surgery, the couple moved back into the Columbia area from Augusta.

“There’s been so much going on,” said Bryan, who grew up in Chapin and starred at Dutch Fork High and the University of South Carolina. “I’m going to have a lot of family time now, and that’s great.”

Bryan tried to play through the injury, but pain persisted during the PGA Tour’s fall season. He missed four cuts and withdrew from a fifth event.

“I knew something was wrong, had an MRI and found out what the issue was,” he said. “I had the surgery (at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City). Recovery is going to take a while, and I’m going to take it slow. I’m going to be 100 percent healthy before I swing a golf club again.”

Wesley and brother George IV made a name for themselves with trick-shot artistry after outstanding college golf careers. Wesley earned a spot on the Web.com Tour in 2016 and sparkled, winning three times en route to earning player of the year honors and a promotion to the PGA Tour.

He had finishes for T4, T4 and T7 in a three-tournament streak early in his first full PGA Tour season 2016-17, then won the 2017 RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Island. He tied for third at the John Deere later that season, but he struggled all of the 2017-18 campaign and fell to 163rd in the FedEx Cup standings.

“He never complained, but I could tell something was wrong,” said his dad, teaching pro George Bryan III. “He was like a one-armed golfer.”

“It had been hurting a little bit for a while, but I love the game so much I tried to fight through it,” Wesley said. “The PGA Tour puts on amazing events each and every week, and you want to be part of them. The pain got to the point that I couldn’t keep going.”

Bryan is in the second season of his two-year exemption for winning the Heritage and will maintain that status when he returns to competition.

The elder Bryan said the injury “is my fault. It’s genetic. I had the same injury and so did (son) George IV and (daughter) Mary Chandler. But I know this: This injury is a blessing in that he will have time at home with their new daughter.”

Wesley puts no timetable on his return, saying only that he will not rush back into competition too early. But his dad has a prediction.

“When he was injured in the past during junior golf, he came back strong,” George III said. “I think the same thing will happen; he’s going to be really good.”

Bryan is the third South Carolinian on the PGA Tour sidelined by injury. William McGirt is out indefinitely after undergoing hip surgery last fall, and Ben Martin has played in only one tournament since June with a back injury.

This story was originally published February 1, 2019 at 10:00 AM.