[Photo: Mike Mulholland]
Brooks Koepka’s second act as a PGA Tour pro has officially begun. Last week, Koepka, in his first tournament back from reinstatement following a four-year LIV Golf sabbatical, finished T56 at Torrey Pines. It wasn’t exactly a vintage Koepka performance, but for many golf fans, it was still good to see one of the decade’s most dominant golfers back on the world’s most competitive golf tour.
One player you won’t be seeing in a PGA Tour field anytime soon, however, is Wesley Bryan.
In the wake of Koepka’s seemingly custom-tailored reinstatement, former PGA Tour pro-turned-YouTube star Wesley Bryan became a fascinating juxtaposition. Bryan was suspended indefinitely by the PGA Tour for playing in LIV Golf’s nine-hole influencer scramble event, Duels, last spring. With the commutation of Koepka’s sentence, many hoped the same might be coming for Bryan, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
This week, Skratch’s Dan Rapaport spoke with Bryan regarding his suspension, where the YouTube star revealed he and his wife sent a “really well thought-out” letter to the PGA Tour advocating for his reinstatement following the Koepka news. According to Bryan, however, the tour’s response left a lot to be desired. Check it out.
“We got a response saying they reviewed the letter,” Bryan explained. “But it was from basically their assistant saying, ‘No conversation is necessary.’ That was pretty difficult. Like, why can’t we talk on the phone for 10 or 15 minutes?”
Golf fans seem split on whether Bryan deserves an explanation at all, let alone another chance on the PGA Tour. The pro-Wesley camp believes this is yet another example of power-dynamic-fueled injustice—the rich (Koepka was making roughly $25 million a year playing on LIV) once again getting richer. They also believe that in today’s modern golf landscape, Bryan, who helms a channel with 770,000 subscribers, can put butts in seats just like Koepka. The anti-Bryan camp has a simple but effective rebuttal: One of these guys is a five-time major winner who has starred in Super Bowl commercials. The other is a journeyman YouTuber who, by his own admission, knew what he was getting into when he teed it up at Doral last year.
Ethically and morally, you may disagree with that logic, and that would be perfectly understandable. In our day-to-day lives, most of us are the Wesley Bryans, getting stepped all over so the Brooks Koepkas of the world can skip a few rungs on the ladder. Like Bryan, Koepka knew the punishment he faced for taking LIV money. The difference is that he got a “get out of jail free” card and Bryan didn’t. It doesn’t take a Supreme Court Justice to tell you that’s not fair or just. But as your high school gym teacher would be quick to remind you, life ain’t fair. Right or wrong, the PGA Tour is in the business of making big splashes and Brooks Koepka is a cannonball off the high dive.
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