Bryan Bros make cut at Butterfield Bermuda Championship

Wesley Bryan couldn’t help but check his phone. He was in the midst of a 7-under second-round 64 to make the cut on the number, but it was hardly his focus.

He wanted to know what was happening two groups behind him.

“I pulled out my phone 25 times out there today to check the leaderboard,” said Wesley, who finished at 5 under overall. “I just knew there was one guy in my crosshairs today.”

That guy, of course, was his brother George Bryan IV, who was making his PGA TOUR debut this week at the Bermuda Butterfield Championship. Following a birdie on the ninth hole, his last of the round, Wesley quickly signed his card and made his way back to the course to catch a glimpse of George’s finish. The Bryan Bros have become well known for their entertaining YouTube channel. Now, the duo was delivering engaging content again, this time on the PGA TOUR stage.

After starting 2 over through seven holes, George eagled his eighth hole, the 17th, and added three more birdies on his back nine to reach 5 under. With Wesley watching, George made par on his final two holes to finish on the cut line in his first TOUR start. Both will be around for the weekend. And fittingly, the uber-competitive brothers are tied.

“I had a four-stroke lead on him starting the day and knew he was going to catch me and I'm kind of getting updates and I'm like, my gosh, he actually might,” George said.

“I saw your eagle (on 17) and I was like no, no, no, no, no,” Wesley interjected.

“And then like he actually shot 7 (under), you can't make it up,” George continued. “But I knew like whatever I was going to shoot he was going to beat by four for us to be tied or something going into the weekend, and here we are both at 5 under.”

The parallels shouldn’t be lost. George, 35, and Wesley, 33, , branded together as the Bryan Bros with a thriving YouTube channel and growing business ventures. They took a winding path to reach this point. George was the superior college player, but it was Wesley who found professional success. He won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016, earned his lone PGA TOUR title a year later and became a top-50 player in the world. George toiled on the mini-tours and never got his big break.

The two were most known for their work as trick shot artists, but re-dedicated themselves to content and re-imagined their strategy during COVID-19. Now, they have a YouTube channel with more than 225,000 subscribers.

A winding path also best describes their first two round in Bermuda. Wesley was tied for 119th after an opening-round 73 that featured a double- and triple-bogey. But he made eight birdies on Friday, including three in his final four holes to shoot a back-nine 31 and sneak into the weekend.

George opened with a first-round 69 but quickly fell back to even-par with a pair of early bogeys on Friday. An eagle on the par-5 17th erased those dropped shots and birdies on Nos. 2, 5 and 7 proved firepower to earn two more rounds.

The weekend provides Wesley another opportunity to improve his FedExCup Fall positioning. He ranked 192nd to begin the week, 275 points behind No. 125 C.T. Pan. This marks his fifth made cut in his last six starts, though he’s earned just over 40 FedExCup points in those finishes.

For George, it’s a continued chance to show himself he belongs. He will play in the second stage of Q-School later this month.

“I had zero expectations coming into this week,” George said. I know the game is good and I'm playing well, but like again, I've never played in a PGA TOUR event. I didn't know what my body and my head and my mind was going to feel like.”

It’s another two rounds for both to live out a childhood dream of playing together on the PGA TOUR.