Firm, fast ‘Car-nasty’ takes center stage

Wesley Bryan didn’t want to be Joseph in the Christmas play at his pre-school. He wanted to be the donkey. So when Wesley walked down the aisle to the manger he decided to get on his hands and knees and crawl like his four-legged friend. “His mom was mortified,â€� Elizabeth Bryan recalls. At least Wesley didn’t bray, though. Of course, Elizabeth, who was perfectly content to play one of the angels in the production, was there. But she doesn’t really remember what happened. Or him, for that matter. After all, she and her future husband were just 4 years old at the time. The couple grew up 10 minutes apart in the Columbia, South Carolina suburb of Irmo. Although they didn’t go to the same elementary or middle school, Wesley and Elizabeth had a lot of friends in common. “We would frequently end up in the same place, (like at) birthday parties, so we have random pictures throughout the years that we found,â€� she said. Wesley finally called over spring break during their junior year in high school. He was at a Sonic Drive-In, which was the local hangout, with some friends and wondered if she wanted to join them. Elizabeth recruited one of her friends and headed to the burger joint. “She said you’d better be careful, they say that Wesley is a big flirt,â€� she recalled. Within days, though, Wesley broke up with the girl he was seeing. And while Elizabeth went with someone else to the prom at Wesley’s high school, her heart wasn’t in it. “We have a picture together from that prom — when we weren’t going together,â€� Elizabeth said. “He stole me away from the guy that I was with and we pretty much went out and started dating a few weeks afterwards.â€� By the end of the summer, things had started to get serious. The two were sitting on the couch at Elizabeth’s house and Wesley made a comment that surprised her. “It was basically implying like I think I found the right one, and here we are 17 years old and we had been dating three months,â€� Elizabeth said. She felt similarly “but I don’t think I would have voiced it that early,â€� Elizabeth said. The two got closer as seniors, and she even decided to follow him to South Carolina where Wesley planned to play golf. Elizabeth, though, didn’t know anything about her husband’s favorite sport. Her father tried to help, drawing out a par 3, par 4 and par 5 to help teach her the fundamentals of the game. “I remember in college (Wesley) telling me, oh, this is the career path I’m choosing, and if you want to be a part of that, that’s great, but if you don’t, this isn’t going to work out,â€� Elizabeth said. “And clearly I loved Wesley, so I knew that we were just going to have to find a way to make it work.â€� Wesley proposed the Sunday after Thanksgiving during their senior year. He had taken her to lunch at Firehouse Subs – “I thought we were going to go somewhere a little bit nicer,â€� Elizabeth said with a laugh – and the two went hiking on a dam on nearby Lake Murray. “He gets down on one knee and he says, Elizabeth, will you marry me, and he pulled out the ring, and my first response was ‘Shut up,’â€� Elizabeth recalled. “I had no idea this was going to happen. Of course, I was super excited, I just thought he was going to be waiting longer.â€� Minutes before Wesley proposed, Elizabeth had been talking about how she wanted to go on a medical mission to Africa after she graduated. She had decided to study to be a physician’s assistant and needed experience before starting graduate school. “He told me after he proposed, all your friends that have gone to Africa, they were dating one guy when they went and they came back and they were engaged to another one,â€� Elizabeth remembered. “So I’m not letting you go to Africa.â€� The couple was married in August the following year, the week after she graduated from South Carolina. Wesley’s older brother, George, his trick-shot partner, was the best man. The teachers who taught Wesley and Elizabeth in preschool were among the wedding guests. For the next two years, Wesley played the mini-tours while Elizabeth worked. She’d join him on weekends whenever possible. She started school to get her PA degree in 2014 and graduated in 2016, the same year Wesley made it to the Web.com Tour. Turns out, it was a short stay there. Wesley won three times in 13 starts to earn a promotion to the PGA TOUR and lock up his card for 2016-17. He was also named Web.com Tour Player of the Year. And in April, Wesley edged Luke Donald by a single stroke to become the first South Carolina native to win the RBC Heritage in its 49-year history. It was just his 18th PGA TOUR start, and both their families, with the exception of George and his wife, were there to see it happen. “I think it’s pretty unbelievable,â€� Elizabeth said. “Just even two years ago or three years ago, whatever it was, just still kind of in shock and in awe of everything that we’ve watched unfold. “I think one of the coolest parts about it is a lot of it is things that Wesley and I prayed for for months or years that we have now seen God answer.â€� And there is undoubtedly more to come. Of course, no one knows a TOUR player better than his wife. So, now that you know a little more about the couple, Elizabeth gives us 18 things you might not know about her husband below. 1. He starts each morning with quiet time with his Bible. 2. He didn’t have a sip of coffee until 2 years ago. Now he drinks it daily. 3. Get him on the dance floor with his closest friends, and he won’t leave. If you keep your eyes above his feet while we do the South Carolina Shag, you will be wowed by his dance moves. 4. If he could spend a day with any celebrity, it would definitely be Justin Bieber. 5. He loves card and board games. We always travel with a deck of cards, and our current favorite is gin rummy. 6. He’s in the gym at least five days per week, but rarely breaks a sweat. 7. Edisto Beach is his favorite place to vacation, probably because it’s also my favorite. 8. He is easy going and disconnects from golf about 5 minutes after he gets off the course. 9. He cooks dinner almost every night we are in town. I don’t get home from work until 7:30 and he has dinner “hot and readyâ€� on the table. He rarely uses recipes, and he is a fantastic cook! 10. If he ever wins the Masters, I wouldn’t put it past him to have a Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme on the Champions Dinner Menu. 11. It’s not easy to embarrass Wesley, but don’t be surprised if he embarrasses you, especially in public. 12. He falls asleep within seconds and never sleeps past 7 AM. 13. His favorite sports teams are the South Carolina Gamecocks, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Braves, and whoever Lebron is playing for. 14. He is a child at heart, and he is great with kids. He will be an awesome dad one day! 15. This may come as a surprise if you saw the video where Wesley rattled off his top 10-plus desserts, but he doesn’t eat sweets as much as you think. He typically has dessert once a week and anything chocolate is his favorite! 16. He knows the lyrics to almost every rap song from our high school days. 17. His final round outfit is pink pants and a blue shirt. It started out as blue pants and a pink shirt, but he changed it up about a year ago. 18. He is a candle connoisseur, and Yankee Candle’s “Whoopie Pieâ€� speaks his love language.

Click here to read the full article…

MEDINAH, Ill. – From a FedExCup perspective, Patrick Cantlay and Tony Finau are good to go for East Lake. Both started this week inside the top 20 in points, with the scenarios in their favor for the TOUR Championship. Thus, they can concentrate on winning the BMW Championship this weekend and improving their Playoffs positions under the new Starting Strokes format. Given their current spots on the Medinah leaderboard – 11 under and tied for second, one stroke behind 36-hole leader Hideki Matsuyama – the opportunity is within reach. But there’s also another element to their story – the Presidents Cup. The eight guaranteed spots for both the U.S. and International teams will be decided after the final round at the BMW, and the fates for both Cantlay and Finau remain unclear. Related: Leaderboard | Projected FedExCup standings | Hot putter helps Matsuyama set course record Cantlay started the week as the bubble boy, eighth in U.S. points. Finau is 10th. But after two terrific days at Medinah, each has moved up in the projections, with Cantlay projected fifth and Finau eighth. Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau – one of Finau’s playing partners for the first two days this week – has dropped from seventh to ninth. DeChambeau shot his second consecutive 71 on Friday and is tied for 49th in the 69-man field. For Finau, the chance to make his second consecutive American team will be a motivating factor this weekend. He did not make last year’s Ryder Cup team on merit but received the last captain’s pick from Jim Furyk. He’d rather not have to sweat out a pick from Tiger Woods this fall. “I was trying to make the team on the Ryder Cup. When I didn’t, I was trying to impress the captain and play well enough to do that,â€� Finau said. “So what I remember from last year is I put my head down and just played and tried to win every tournament I played in the Playoffs, and that seemed to work out pretty well last year.â€� Indeed, Finau was runner-up at THE NORTHERN TRUST, then T-4 at the Dell Technologies Championship and T-8 at the BMW Championship last year at Aronimink. That put him in the TOUR Championship, where he finished T-15. Finau started THE NORTHERN TRUST last week with an opening 65 but cooled off to finish T-30. Looks like the hot hand is back. He opened with a 67 that included an eagle at the 14th hole and followed that with a bogey-free 66. “Got to put the pedal to the metal,â€� he said. Cantlay, meanwhile, followed his opening 66 with a 67. He’s suffered just one bogey through the first two rounds, thanks to some clutch putting. On Friday, he rolled in a two 8-foot par putts in his final four holes to prevent a good round from slipping away. “Just a lot of good momentum going into the weekend,â€� he said. “I feel good with all the parts of my game.â€� Cantlay is seeking his first U.S. team appearance since playing in the Palmer Cup and Walker Cup in 2011. He was among those considered for the final Ryder Cup spot last year that went to Finau. Given how well Finau handled the intense pressure at Paris – he won two of his three matches, including his Singles match against Tommy Fleetwood – it’s hard to argue with Furyk’s decision, even in a week in which most things did not go right for the Americans. Although a disappointing loss for the U.S., the taste of team competition has made Finau hungry for more. “After having that experience, you don’t want to miss any teams,â€� Finau said. I don’t want to miss the Presidents Cup this year. I don’t want to miss the Ryder Cup next year. So on and so forth.â€� But he won’t let his focus stray from the immediate task at hand. Neither will Cantlay, who will deliberately avoid having his focus diffused by all the various elements in play this weekend. On Saturday, Cantlay is in the final twosome with Matsuyama, a potential Presidents Cup opponent. And Finau is in the twosome just ahead with Justin Thomas, a potential Presidents Cup teammate. “I do think it’s really important not to be caught up in any of that, especially for me,â€� Cantlay said. “I’m just going to go out and do my best to play this golf course well.â€� He’s done that for the first 36 holes. So has Finau. As a result, the next 36 holes at Medinah should be extremely interesting – and potentially fruitful — for both players.

Click here to read the full article…

We are less than three weeks away from the PGA TOUR’s official return at the Charles Schwab Challenge. More than 90 days will have passed between the cancellation of THE PLAYERS and the TOUR’s resumption of play. When THE PLAYERS was canceled back in March, a cloud of uncertainty was hanging over golf and the world around it. Nobody knew when we would see the world’s best tee it up again, but both players and fans were certainly hoping it would be safe to do so sooner than later. We now have a clear schedule for the remainder of the year, with competition resuming 13 weeks after the THE PLAYERS was canceled. Let’s explore what impact this break might have on player performance. Needless to say, 13-week breaks are not common among PGA TOUR players. Overall, only around 2.7% of starts are made by players coming off a 13-week break. A lot can happen in that time. Back in 2000, Tiger went on a run of five wins, including three majors, in a 13-week stretch. Below is a chart showing the percentage of players in a given event, by weeks off entering the tournament. Fifty-two percent of a field played the week prior. As we might expect, there’s a clear relationship between performance and the number of weeks a player has been off. We can analyze how well players perform by comparing our estimate of their ability (how we would expect them to perform) to how they actually performed. Generally, players taking small breaks of two weeks or less are marginally better than expected, while longer breaks result in an average drop in performance of between 0.1 and 0.2 strokes per round. For context, a drop of 0.2 strokes per round is about the gap between 100th- and 135th-ranked players in the world. It’s a significant change, but not enormous. Additionally, the drop in performance after a 10-20 week gap is quite consistent across different levels of players. Top-50 players in the world are affected by a similar amount to those outside the top 50. The below bar chart shows how players performed against their expected performance after layoffs of varying lengths. Given how uncommon breaks of this length are, we can’t draw too many conclusions on who we might expect to perform well in the early weeks back. However, there are a few players who over the past five years have had multiple 10+ week gaps and performed better than expected on their return. Ryan Moore (+0.9 strokes per round) and Phil Mickelson (+0.6) top that list. The below table shows the players who have performed the best after long layoffs. Intuitively we might think that after an extended period without playing on tour that touch on the greens might be a little off, and putting would be the area to suffer. In reality, it appears to be the opposite. Taking a player’s performance in their ‘return’ event compared with their season average that year, putting is actually the only area that remains quite consistent, with the other areas all dropping by a similar amount.

Click here to read the full article…