Wesley Bryan has responded to his suspension by the PGA Tour, confirming that he will be appealing the decision.
The 2017 RBC Heritage champion, who runs the Bryan Bros Golf YouTube channel alongside his brother, George, was given the suspension for taking part in an unauthorised event after he teed it up in the recent pro/creator event LIV Golf: The Duels in Miami, where six YouTube stars were paired with LIV Golfers in a made-for-YouTube match that aired on Grant Horvat's channel.
Monday Q Info reported that Bryan was placed on probation by the PGA Tour the day after The Duels event was announced and officially suspended the next day after the video aired. Speaking alongside George on his YouTube channel, Bryan began by admitting that it had been a challenging time since he was given the suspension, which he described as “immediate and indefinite.”
“It’s been a difficult few weeks for us. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster, he said. “But I want to lead off just by thanking the PGA Tour. At an early age they gave me the dream of playing on their tour, they provided me with some unbelievable opportunities and experiences and friendships that I’ve made and golf courses that I’ve been able to play - amazing events that I’ve been able to compete in, so from our end, nothing but gratitude for the PGA Tour.”
He then detailed the motivation for competing in the contest, which took place before LIV Golf Miami and began streaming on April 6th.
He explained: “We started our YouTube journey 10+ years ago. All we ever wanted to do was fund our mini tour golf in hopes of one day playing on the PGA Tour and obviously over the last few years, YouTube has taken a little bit of a priority in my life.
“It’s been a very difficult road to navigate, trying to balance playing competitively and creating content on YouTube, but I do feel that we’ve been able to be a part of something really special in growing the YouTube community, and I’m going to continue to do that.
“With that being said, when we got the opportunity to play on Grant Horvat’s YouTube channel, with five Major champions and five of my best buds that happen to be fantastic content creators, we had to jump at that opportunity, because all we’ve ever wanted to do, from the Bryan Bros, is to merge professional and YouTube golf and this was going to be one of those opportunities that we’ve been dreaming of since we got into YouTube golf.”
Bryan, whose most recent PGA Tour start came in March's Puerto Rico Open, then confirmed he planned to appeal the decision to suspend him, saying: “The Duels Miami, it was deemed an unauthorised event by the PGA Tour, and I want to be clear, I do respect the authorities that are in place at the tour, but because of the ambiguity and the rules and regulations that were written, I do as a member of the PGA Tour have a right to appeal the decision on which I plan on exercising.
“I don’t feel like when the rules were written it was meant to cover content creation on YouTube. I feel like it was meant to cover organised, professional, high-level golf events, and so, with that being said, I plan on carrying out my right to appeal.”
The news of Bryan’s suspension came the day after Horvat, who played alongside Phil Mickelson in LIV Golf: The Duels, revealed he had been invited to play at a PGA Tour event, thought to be July’s Barracuda Championship.
