Promotion to PGA Tour has Wesley Bryan setting new goals
Wesley Bryan began the 2016 Web.com Tour with hopes of “squeezing into the top 25” in earnings, a finish that would earn him a berth on the 2016-17 PGA Tour.
Turns out he set his sights too low.
The year “has gone way better than I thought,” Bryan said Tuesday, two days before he makes his first start as a PGA Tour member in the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Ill. “I guess I didn’t set my goals high enough, but this is very satisfying. All the hard work has paid off, and the way I have played gives me a good feeling going forward.”
Bryan grew up in Chapin, starred at Dutch Fork High and the University of South Carolina and always harbored visions of competing on the PGA Tour. But progress came slowly. He earned a measure of fame on the Golf Channel’s Big Break program and far more recognition for his trick-shot expertise with brother George IV, but the big leagues looked far, far away.
Opportunity knocked with his qualifying in this year’s Web.com tournaments, and he took the tour by storm. He won his third start and then his sixth. A third victory would mean a promotion to the PGA Tour and that came Sunday in dramatic fashion in Overland Park, Kan.
Maybe his shot will not live in golf lore like Shaun Micheel’s 7-iron to win the 2003 PGA, Jerry Pate’s 5-iron to seal the 1976 U.S. Open or Jonathan Byrd’s hole-in-one to capture the 2010 Las Vegas PGA Tour tournament. But it’s one that Bryan will cherish forever.
“That’s certainly the best shot I’ve hit all year, maybe the best in my life,” he said in recounting the second playoff hole, a par-3. “I had 193 to the flag with the wind off the right, and I hit a 6-iron to a few feet.”
He tapped in for birdie to close out the playoff win over Grayson Murray and J.T. Poston. Rather than heading to Missouri for the next Web.com event, he travelled to Illinois for the PGA Tour.
This will be his third start of the year on the “big” tour, but his first as a full-fledged member. He tied for 58th in the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis and shared 29th in the Quicken Loans tourney near Washington, D.C. Inconsistency -- a third-round 78 in Memphis and a pair of 74s amid a 66 and a 67 at Congressional -- cost him, but his earnings ($53,929, 220th place) and FedEx points (49, 212th) now count in PGA Tour statistics.
“I just need to keep playing the way I have,” Bryan, 26, said. “It’s the same game at a higher level. I’ve putted great all year and at times have hit the ball very well.”
He leads the Web.com Tour in putting per greens in regulation, scoring, birdies or better percentage and earnings ($449,392.). In addition to his three tournament wins, he has four other top-10 finishes in 13 starts.
He will play the John Deere this week and the Wyndham in Greensboro, N.C., next week. Then, he said, “My schedule gets crazy.”
There’s vacation time with wife Elizabeth to plan and the Web.com playoffs to tune up for the 2016-17 PGA Tour season. Or there could be, with another win this week or next, a berth in the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Far-fetched? Maybe. But Bryan is not setting his sights too low again. “You never know,” he said, “when lightning might strike again.”