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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

May 10, 2017

Wesley Bryan

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Q. What has this week been like for you so far?
WESLEY BRYAN: Getting to know the golf course is obviously it's been the first and foremost task. They structurally didn't change much on the front nine, but just a couple different visual looks than what I've been used to playing around here in college and shortly after. I mean, just, it's nice being able to come out and play golf on grass that I'm familiar with and that I like, back on Bermuda grass this week, so it should be a fun week.

Q. You mentioned that you played here before in college and such, so do you already have a comfort level or is it still pretty nerve wracking being your first time?
WESLEY BRYAN: Oh, I mean I've played here probably a dozen times or so, so it's not anything that, it's not like coming to an event that I've never seen the golf course before, so it adds a little bit of a comfort factor there, but just looking forward to getting my first PLAYERS Championship underway and it's a tournament that I've dreamed of playing in a long time, so to actually be here is really cool.

Q. What about 17? How are you preparing yourself for that first time you step to the tee in competition?
WESLEY BRYAN: I'm actually more worried about this afternoon. This afternoon there's going to be a lot of people there, I got a lot of pressure on my caddie to hit the green, so I'm more focused on my shot there this afternoon.

Q. Can you comment on this year so far?
WESLEY BRYAN: Oh, I mean, I had my goals set up to start the year, I wanted to win, and I wanted to win before the Masters. That was kind of what the guideline I set up. I wanted to play in the Masters this year, but I guess winning the week after the Masters was not too bad of a gig. I completed one of the goals, I still have other goals. I want to compete this week in THE PLAYERS, I want to compete in Major Championships, so that's kind of the next step.

Q. Last year you were playing WEB.COM TOUR and this year you are playing the PGA TOUR and you won a tournament. What's different? What did you change in two years ago, maybe one year ago?
WESLEY BRYAN: I didn't really change much, I just kind of stuck to the same routine that I was on, I felt like every single year I was getting a little bit better, but I never ended up on any TOUR that I could advance. And then last year I finally got on the WEB.COM TOUR and I was able to get in contention early on in the year, and win early in the year, and lock up my card and then I could play with a little more freedom. So when I won the second and third tournament, it was just validation that, when I get in contention I am able to win. And what I found, when I got out here, is that the talent gap is not much different from the WEB.COM TOUR to the PGA TOUR, so to be able to win on this level as well is super satisfying, to know that all the hard work that I put in has paid off.

Q. I'm a great fan of your trick shots. When and why did you decide to start doing the trick shots?
WESLEY BRYAN: I started doing them because I was really broke and really bored and me and my brother were beating it around on the mini tours and we just felt like that -- we saw a couple videos go viral from other people that didn't look overwhelmingly difficult, so we went out and tried them and found that I was pretty good at plucking the ball out of mid air and so we just kind of ran with it.

Q. What is the most difficult part of a trick shot?
WESLEY BRYAN: I would say probably the setup of it, the creativity and the drawing up the idea. The easy part is, once the ball gets somewhere near me, just to hit it. That's kind of the easy part. But the drawing it up in your mind is the toughest part.

Q. Which is more difficult, trick shot or playing the PGA TOUR?
WESLEY BRYAN: The PGA TOUR's way more difficult. Way more difficult.

Q. (No microphone.)
WESLEY BRYAN: I'm not sure at this point.

Q. How aware are you of Will McGirt's background and it's said he's sort of a hero on the mini-tour circuit from what he did. Are you aware of that?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, he's a legend.

Q. Was that maybe not inspirational, but maybe showing it could be done?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, he's a guy, he played at Wofford, really familiar with his story, he won a lot of mini-tour events and kind of used, as soon as he got his opportunity, he took advantage of it, once he got out on TOUR. So he's a great player, really consistent, and no surprise that he's a PGA TOUR winner.

Q. Ridiculous amount of under 30 guys coming in here. How much did it help you if at all?
WESLEY BRYAN: A lot of the guys I saw winning were a lot of peers, a lot of guys I played amateur and college golf with and some of them that I played mini tours with. So, it definitely, they're guys that I knew I could compete with, so it's not like I got out here and thought that it was some impossible task to win. It's very difficult, but it's not impossible. So getting the validation, seeing your friends, guys that you grew up playing golf with winning tournaments on both tours, I mean, it's just as hard to win out there as it is out here, in my honest opinion.

Q. Can you talk about last year, how important was it to finish where you did on the WEB.COM to get here, to get that exemption into this event? Were you cognizant of it?
WESLEY BRYAN: No, at the time I wasn't, my agent told me that I needed to keep playing. Because once I locked up my card, I kind of wanted to dabble out here a little bit more, I wanted to take a lot more weeks off and just kind of rest. And he was like, you got to keep going, you got to get that No. 1 spot, it's huge, you won't understand it. And I was like, okay, whatever. And to play out of the WEB.COM category is extremely difficult. I didn't realize it was that difficult. I had the luxury of being able to pick and choose my schedule. There's, say if I don't get that No. 1 spot, I'm, I don't get into Riviera probably, I don't get into Tampa probably, I don't get into Bay Hill, I don't get into Hilton Head. So they're tournaments where -- or don't get into Honda -- like my four best finishes this year, I might not have gotten in on my number, based on what I had made in the fall and the first couple of events of the spring. So, yeah, getting that No. 1 spot and getting an exemption straight into here is huge. But I think the schedule that I was able to set up earlier in the year was just as much -- yeah it was huge.

Q. So no Memorial?
WESLEY BRYAN: No.

Q. Any similarities at all here to Harbour Town?
WESLEY BRYAN: You get a lot of the same visual looks at Harbour Town as you get out here. I think this is a little bigger golf course, it's a little more, they're bigger greens, it's a little more demanding, it's more demanding going into the greens, missing it in the proper places, because you can -- out here -- you can kind of fake it around Harbour Town at times and on the greens with bailout areas. But here there's really no bailout and it all just kind of rolls off every corner of the green. So there's a lot of similarities, visually, what you'll get off the tees, but going into the greens there's some pretty big differences.

Q. Have you played it before?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, I probably played it a dozen times or so.

Q. Just recreationally?
WESLEY BRYAN: Just recreationally, yeah, no tournament rounds out here thus far. Well I guess you, I had a match, me and George played a match against two NFL kickers, that was a pretty tough match.

Q. Scobee one of them?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, Scobee and Ryan Succop.

Q. George?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, my brother and I. We took them down. I think we won like 5 & 4 or 4 & 3. So that was a competitive match.

Q. Did you give them any strokes?
WESLEY BRYAN: No, they didn't want any strokes. They were talking junk on Twitter, so we had to play them.

Q. When did you do that?
WESLEY BRYAN: It was probably two years ago.

Q. Scobee had a little money then.
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah.

Q. He was still employed.
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, there's a YouTube video that documents it, too.

Q. That you took?
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, that we videoed it out here.

Q. Trash talking?
WESLEY BRYAN: Oh, yeah. A lot of it.

Q. I'm trying to capture the zen of number 17. Have you played it in competition before?
WESLEY BRYAN: I never played it in competition.

Q. Okay, so how does it feel, how do you want to feel when you're standing there on 17? Is it different?
WESLEY BRYAN: I want to feel a little nervous, because that means you're playing well, once you get to that point. So, I just want one that I can bark at, that I can look and see it at the hole and start talking to it.

Q. Mackenzie was sitting here, I gave him the chance to pick anyone for Rookie of the Year, he picked himself. I'll give you the same opportunity. Who would you pick as Rookie of the Year right at this halfway point and if you pick yourself, what's your case?
WESLEY BRYAN: At this point I think I would vote for myself, unless Jon (Rahm) is considered a rookie, which I don't think he is at this point.

Q. Not eligible?
WESLEY BRYAN: But they went back last year and deemed a couple people eligible at the end of the year, so you never really know. I think that Jon (Rahm) is obviously, as far as -- I would consider this his first year on TOUR, he played seven events last year, but I think I played four or five, so it's not like that big of a gap.

Q. Well exploit it.
WESLEY BRYAN: Yeah, right, exactly. At this point I would probably give it to myself, but Mackenzie has made a great case for it, I just think that my win was better than his and because it -- and I say that really biasedly, because mine came in the state of South Carolina, his came in the state of Georgia.

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