Wesley Bryan finishes second at Corales Puntacana, earns another start

YouTuber and PGA TOUR winner Wesley Bryan held the 54-hole lead at the Corales Puntacana Championship, and he carded a smooth 68 in the final round at Puntacana Resort & Club’s Corales Golf Course. In a long-awaited return to Sunday contention, the wily veteran met the moment – with a mustache and swagger to boot.

It wasn’t quite enough for a return to the winner’s circle, as Bryan finished solo second to Billy Horschel, who stampeded to a final-round 63 for a two-shot win at 23-under. Yet Bryan, 34, will take plenty of good from the week. Having entered the season on low-level past champion status (this was just his second start of 2024, having missed the cut at the Puerto Rico Open), these 165 FedExCup points will help immensely in the upcoming reshuffle of conditional members.

With a top-10 finish, Bryan also secures a start at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson in two weeks.

“Obviously excited, it was an amazing week, but bummed,” Bryan said afterward. “Definitely encouraged how the golf game was, how it held up under the pressure of a weekend leading a golf tournament. … Today just got beat, plain and simple. … Hats off to Billy.

“I didn't realize there were that many people that watched our YouTube videos down in the Dominican Republic, but that support was amazing. Online it's been great this week. … I feel like we made some more good content from this week and something to build off of professionally playing as well. Looks like we'll have some more opportunities to play throughout the year.”

Bryan’s sole TOUR title came at the 2017 RBC Heritage (ironically also being played this week), shortly after winning three times on the 2016 Korn Ferry Tour en route to Player of the Year honors. Golf came easy for him at the time. It hasn’t always been the same since; he went nearly six years without a top-10 finish on TOUR, a streak that he snapped with a solo sixth at last year’s Puerto Rico Open.

This week, things snowballed upward in a big way. Bryan started fast in Punta Cana with an opening-round, 9-under 63, which he backed up with scores of 69-66 into Sunday’s final round, when he made five birdies against one bogey. The University of South Carolina alum finished in style with a 30-foot birdie at the 72nd hole, followed by congratulations from his wife Elizabeth and their three young children who made the trip.

The Bryans shared a rental house this week with Ben Martin and family, and there was plenty of poolside relaxation to be had. It corresponded with good golf and good memories.

“For the girls to be out here this week, I mean, I could have finished dead last, but for them to be able to see daddy hit a few golf shots and kind of soak in what the atmosphere was I feel like was pretty special,” Bryan said. “For me, just having them out here, it's amazing.”

Bryan wasn’t the only conditional member to secure a spot at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, as fellow TOUR past champion Kevin Tway finished solo third at 19-under to assure another start in two weeks. Tway carded four rounds in the 60s in Punta Cana, notching his first TOUR top-10 since the Texas Children’s Houston Open in fall 2021.

Non-member Peter Kuest also punched his ticket to THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson with a tie for ninth at the Corales. Kuest earned his spot in Punta Cana with a T10 at the Valero Texas Open, into which he Monday qualified, and he has now parlayed that successful Monday into a third start.

Kuest, 25, is making a habit of this practice. Last year, he finished fourth at the Rocket Mortgage Classic to earn a spot at the John Deere Classic, where he finished T17 to earn Special Temporary Membership. This year, he still has plenty of work ahead to reach that mark; he now holds 110 non-member FedExCup points, with the Special Temporary Membership threshold for this season at 263 points (No. 150 on last year’s FedExCup Fall standings).

Nonetheless, Kuest has earned another chance to chase that mark.