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FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 8, 2016

Wesley Bryan

Memphis, Tennessee

AMANDA HERRINGTON: We'd like to thank Wesley Bryan for joining us today in your first PGA TOUR start here at the FedEx St. Jude Classic. Wesley, been an interesting ride for you since December at Q-school. If you can kind of take us back through initially getting through Q-school, that first win, and then the second win.

WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, so six months ago, started, had no status anywhere, going through Q-school, and was lucky enough to play really well at first and second stage and kind of know that at final stage if I just finished really in the top 60 or so, I would at least have the ability to play in some Web.com TOUR events.

I went and I finished in the top 10, which guaranteed me through I think three reshuffles, and I knew I had somewhere to play for the first time in my career, so that was really satisfying.

Then really it was the first week I got myself into contention. I played down in Panama out of the next to last group and kind of realized, hey, if I play my game and I play really well, then I can compete on the Web.com TOUR level.

Then in my third start I got in contention again and was able to seal the deal there. That kind of freed things up moving forward. I knew that I was pretty close to already locking up my card that early in the season, which took a lot of the pressure off, and I found myself in contention again in MÃ©xico a few weeks later, and luckily that back nine in MÃ©xico I've never been so nervous in my life. It was nerves that I didn't feel in Louisiana, didn't feel in Q-school, and it was a little bit different, but was able to hit some shots when I needed to and won that one by a few and locked up my card there.

I guess I've still got some work to do. I know No. 1 on the Money List has a lot of perks, so I'm going to keep chasing after that. And then got a sponsor's invite here, so now I guess we're going to see what the PGA TOUR is all about.

AMANDA HERRINGTON: What are your first impressions so far of the PGA TOUR?

WESLEY BRYAN: You know, it's way different than down on the Web.com TOUR and definitely way different than the mini-tours where I played my first few years out. The food is incredible. The service is way better. I mean, they're sending people to pick up my mom and my wife from the airport. They're doing my laundry this week. I mean, everything is just above and beyond what I feel like I should be treated.

Q. You guys get a lot of kind of non-traditional attention. You have cameras everywhere and stuff. Has everything around you started to feel a bit normal? Did it take some getting used to?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, that part was a little bit different. I guess really in the first win, there weren't any cameras really out there following, and still there haven't really been any TV cameras until I guess the first one televised was in Indiana, and that was coming off my second win. I was completely exhausted at that point going from MÃ©xico to Indiana, and got out there Thursday, hadn't even seen the golf course because I got in a little late. My bags didn't make it so my clubs didn't make it, and so I was out there playing the course blind, and TV cameras four feet from me pretty much the whole day. So that was a little bit different. It took some getting used to. And having the microphones everywhere. I mean, I'm not a guy that's going to cuss or slam clubs or anything, but still, you're worried about, hey, what if I say something really, really dumb and they pick it up and then they're showing it on TV. That part was a little bit different.

I mean, I think it's fun. You don't really tee it up to be in a position where you're not on TV. Any time you have the TVs in your face, that means you're doing something right.

Q. They don't do your laundry on the mini-tours?
WESLEY BRYAN: You know, every once in a while you'd have a host family that would offer to do your laundry if you stayed there a couple times and got to know the family, but for the most part, no, I'm stuck going to a laundromat putting quarters in.

Q. Give some props to the family who actually did it.
WESLEY BRYAN: All right, well, there was Ms. Vicki up in St. James, Southport, North Carolina. She did my laundry once. I feel like there's a couple. I know I'm going to leave people out, so I don't even want to start, but Ms. Vicki, she was a sweetheart.

Q. Give us a little of the back story of how you and your brother became the internet sensations doing all these trick shots?
WESLEY BRYAN: We started, I guess, a couple years ago. We were just on the couch on ESPN and we saw those two kids hit a ball out of mid-air, and honestly it didn't really look that hard, but the video was going viral, and on ESPN it had a million views on YouTube. We were like, man, it just doesn't look that hard, so we went out and tried it and find that we could hit the ball out of mid-air pretty well, and kind of then got a little more creative and tried to figure out ways to keep upping our game, and then it turned into a YouTube channel and started putting them all on social media and people started sharing them, and it just kind of blew up from there.

Q. Do you feel like at this point in the year you're more known for your golf on the course or the trick shot stuff still?
WESLEY BRYAN: I mean, I would like to think more of a golfer, but it seems like every time there's a headline or something, it's still associated with the trick shot thing.

I mean, it doesn't really matter. I know that if I keep playing well, you've got to earn your stripes out here, so to speak. I mean, good play takes care of everything.

Q. Going back to the sponsor's exemption, can you talk about when you found out about it, where you were, and your reaction?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah. I think -- I don't know where I was. Joe, you probably know. Oh, yeah, right after I won in MÃ©xico I got back, or I had just landed in Indiana for the next Web.com event and got a phone call from Joe sitting down there in the front who told me that Dale had given me a sponsor's invite this week, and I knew it was going to be my first ever PGA TOUR, so I was super excited.

Q. Have you ever been to Memphis?
WESLEY BRYAN: I had never been to Memphis before until a few days ago.

Q. What's your mindset going into your PGA TOUR debut and what are your expectations for the week?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, I mean, it's just another golf tournament. Yeah, the people in the field, the names are changing from the Web.com TOUR, and it's a PGA TOUR event instead of a Web.com TOUR event. But I know when I get up there on the first tee there's still going to be a fairway, there's still going to be a green, there's still going to be a hole, and just trying to figure out a way to shoot the lowest score possible. I feel like if you hype it up to be something bigger than it is, you're kind of putting yourself behind the 8-ball to start off with. Just treating it like any other tournament. Yeah, there's going to be a few more people out there and the golf course is a little harder than what I've played thus far this year, but I'm excited for the challenge.

Q. What's it like knowing you have a TOUR card but also unless you win again knowing you have to wait five, six months to take advantage of it?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, I guess it's pretty cool knowing that I'm getting a taste right now of what the PGA TOUR is all about, and I kind of know that however the year plays out that I'll be out here regardless next year, and it's pretty cool. I knew after I locked up my card in MÃ©xico that I wanted to get a couple starts out here to get my feet wet and see what it's all about, but yeah, it's obviously a really good feeling knowing that I've got a place to play on the PGA TOUR next year.

Q. Is there a favorite trick shot you like to do?
WESLEY BRYAN: A favorite one? Probably the -- we actually might as well just go ahead and announce it, but we had a video come out yesterday with Frisbee trick shot guy Brodie Smith, and that's probably my favorite video like start to finish that we had done up to this point.

Q. Have you scaled it back at all doing the trick shots as you've been working harder on your game and playing more on the Web?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, last year I would say about the end of the summer, it was a couple months before Q-school was starting, and I knew that was kind of the time I was going to shut it down and really start working on my game and try and make it out on the Web.com TOUR. We had to start saying no to a lot of different opportunities, and really some cool opportunities that we had the chance to do that had to say no just because I knew that I had bigger things that I wanted to accomplish in the game of golf than what I had already done.

I didn't grow up as a five, six, seven year old dreaming of being a trick-shot guy on YouTube. I kind of wanted to be a player on the PGA TOUR, and I knew that I had to sacrifice some really good opportunities in order to make that happen, but looking back at it, I'm glad that I made the decision. We're not shutting it down completely. We're still going to go out and we're just going to be able to pick our spots and do a few shows and a few gigs that are really big. I guess we've got some collaborations hopefully in the works. We'll keep doing it.

Q. And what does having a brother on the bag add to the experience?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, it's fun. I mean, we're brothers. We're going to fight half the time and we're going to get along great half the time. It's a lot of fun having somebody on the bag that you know at the end of the day is going to love you whether you play terrible or whether you play great and not a guy that's just out there trying to make a paycheck for the week. It's someone that's really invested and really cares about me as a person instead of a golfer, if that makes sense.

Q. How many days do you think you spent last year doing trick shot stuff, going to places, doing events, that kind of stuff?
WESLEY BRYAN: I mean, as far as travel and filming and -- I mean, it had to be close to 100 days either on the road or at a show or filming stuff. I mean, it was a lot. A lot of travel. I feel like honestly it helped prepare me for this year, just the rigors of being in a different city every other day it felt like at times. I feel like it was good preparation coming into this year.

Q. How long does a video take from thinking about it to pulling it off?
WESLEY BRYAN: A lot of it just depends on the crew that we have. If we have a crew that can work really, really fast and have cameras set up, we can churn out five or six shots and make a video. If it's just George and I and a couple GoPros, in 10 or 15 minutes. But if we have a full production crew, that same 15 minutes of really film time that we have could turn into six hours. It really just depends on who we're working with and what kind of crew we have.

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