With Wesley Bryan a former winner on the PGA Tour, golf fans would be forgiven for assuming that he was a much better player than his brother, George.
Wesley Bryan – who won the 2017 RBC Heritage – is fighting to keep his card on the PGA Tour this year, with the 34-year-old currently 138th in the FedEx Cup standings after missing nine cuts in 15 starts throughout the season. The high point of his year came at the Corales Puntacana Championship, when he finished second to Billy Horschel.
Bryan also sunk a dramatic eagle putt at the Black Desert Championship recently. He was unable to complete his second round on Friday, so went into Saturday knowing that he simply had to make the putt to make the cut. And he did so, going on to finish the week in a tie for 21st.
Fans of YouTube golf meanwhile, will be well aware of how good George Bryan is, with the pair certainly two of the best players in the space.
Rick Shiels names the better player out of George and Wesley Bryan
Bryan himself, has featured on the PGA Tour this year. After losing out in the play-off at The Q at Myrtle Beach – having made a bogey on the final hole to lose the solo lead – Bryan was handed a start at the Myrtle Beach Classic.
He would however, miss the cut after rounds of 73 and 71.
Nevertheless, speaking on The Rick Shiels Golf Show after a recent trip to the Bryan brothers’ Solina Golf Club, Rick Shiels has suggested that he has a potentially controversial view about which of the pair is the better player.
“I love how he plays golf. I wouldn’t say it to his face, because I tried to give him as much banter as I could. It’s fearless. It’s incredible to watch. He wants to always play the creative shot. He wants to always go for greens. If he has a simple chip, he doesn’t play it simply. He wants to pitch it off a bank and spin it back but I think he just gets bored playing normal golf. Wesley Bryan was fantastic,” he said.
“His brother – George Bryan – is arguably better. I didn’t believe it but I think watching the two of them play golf, George is a lot more calculated. A lot more precise. He plays the simple golf shot and I think most of the time I think George would beat Wes, that doesn’t make sense!
“How George isn’t more successful than Wesley I’m not sure, but George doesn’t have that compared to Wesley. George doesn’t have that fearless attitude. I can imagine him [Wes] getting to four or five under and deciding he is going to shoot a 59 today. Whereas George will shoot a 66, 66, 66 and a 66 – whereas Wes will shoot a 61 or a 72.”
Talent will only take a player so far
It does show that natural talent only tells a part of the story. The fact that there is even a conversation to be had over which of the Bryan Bros is the better player shows that George has the ability to play at a higher level on a much more consistent basis than he does.
However, that fearlessness that Shiels mentions clearly has an impact. For a player making their way through the ranks, there are likely to be countless moments where the pressure appears to be ramped up to ridiculous levels, and handling that is clearly an underrated skill.
And players have to want the struggle, too. Gary Player previously said John Daly had the talent to be better than Tiger Woods. So when you consider how successful the Bryan Bros are on YouTube – with nearly 450,000 subscribers – you can understand why a greater portion of that desire to improve is focused on other areas of their lives.
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