No place like home for Bryan’s first Tour win
South Carolina native tops Donald in RBC Heritage
Wesley Bryan rallied to win his home-state RBC Heritage for his first PGA Tour title, closing with a 4-under-par 67 Sunday for a onestroke victory over Luke Donald.
Bryan, a South Carolina native who played golf for the Gamecocks, was four shots behind entering the day at Hilton Head Island and moved into contention with four consecutive birdies on the front nine. He took the lead with a birdie on the 15th hole and finished at 13-under 271.
Donald shot 68 in his latest close call at Harbour Town Golf Links — it was his fifth secondplace finish here since 2009.
Bryan, 27, tapped in for par on the closing, 18th lighthouse hole to make the former trick-shot artist the first South Carolinian to win the state’s lone PGA Tour event.
Along with his brother George IV, Wesley is part of the Bryan Bros Golf, which performs entertaining trick shots in YouTube videos. They appeared in Golf Channel’s Big Break.
The two often have pulled off unbelieveable trick shots — like chipping the ball 20 yards to a waiting Bryan brother to belt away before it hits the ground.
There were no tricks to Wesley Bryan’s round this time, the first to win at Harbour Town in his first try since Boo Weekley won the first of his two consecutive RBC Heritages in 2007.
Bryan got it going with his front-nine run, with birdies on the fourth, fifth, sixth and seven holes. After Bryan moved in front on the 15th, he sweated out three two-putt pars in a row.
Ollie Schniederjans, Patrick Cantlay and William McGirt tied for third, two strokes behind Bryan.
Schniederjans shot 68, Cantlay 67 and McGirt 69.
Schniederjans, 23, five shots behind when the round began, made it all up and was out front with five front-nine birdies. Competing for his first PGA Tour win at the tricky Pete Dye layout proved too daunting for inexperienced Schniederjans. He missed makable birdie tries on the 13th, 14th and 15th holes, then failed to get in for par after hitting into the bunker on the par-3 17th hole.
Donald appeared done after driving out of bounds on the second hole and leaving the birdie-able par-5 with a doublebogey seven. Then Donald made five birdies in a 10-hole stretch to tie for the top before Bryan moved in front.