Web.com Tour rookie wins Louisiana Open for first major victory

BROUSSARD – For the second straight year, a Web.com Tour rookie hoisted the championship trophy at the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by NACHER.
Wesley Bryan shot a final-round 3-under 68 for a 14-under par final score to win the annual golf tournament held at Le Triomphe Golf and Country Club. In addition to earning his major tour victory, Bryan also pocketed $99,000 for the win.
“It didn’t surprise me because he has been playing like this for the past two to three months,” said Wesley’s brother and caddie George, who missed qualifying himself Monday by a single stroke. “He doesn’t hit a lot of bad shots and when he does his short game is really good.”
“I have had George on the bag for all three events this year,” said Wesley, who played on lower tier tours such as the eGolf Tour and SwingThought from 2012-15. “I guess I will give him all the credit.”
Wesley and his brother George IV, both former stars at the University of South Carolina, have become viral sensations with their trick shot videos on You Tube.
There was no trickery though needed this past weekend as Wesley simply played steady golf, especially during Saturday and Sunday’s blustery conditions. The winds gusts were as high as 30 miles per hour as the average score for the entire field was nearly 71.
Those conditions forced Wesley to take his time with his shot selection, even when it came to putting as he lined up his putt on No. 12 at least a dozen times Sunday.
“It took me awhile to pull the trigger there,” Wesley said. “On a day like today you have to remain super patient. You know it is going to gust. You have to be disciplined enough to know when to back off.”
Bryan had an up-and-down (two birdies, two bogeys) front nine on Sunday. Bryan though would respond with a strong start to the back nine as he birdied both No. 11 and No. 12, which put him atop the leader board tied with four others.
After four straight pars, Bryan would secure the Louisiana Open championship with a birdie on the Par-4 No. 17.
After hitting his tee shot with a 3-wood, Bryan then got the ball within 15 feet with his approach shot, in which he used a 7-iron. Bryan then stepped up and drained the putt. In the previous three rounds, Bryan had made par on the hole.
“I had some crazy up and downs today,” Wesley said. “I was able to make a birdie on 17 and kind of breathe a little bit easier on 18 because of that.”
After his par on 18, Bryan and his brother went to the range for about 30 minutes while he waited to see the tournament’s outcome.
Bryan had to wait as the final two groups of the day were wrapping up their round. In that group, eventual runner-up Julian Etulain had the best chance of any in the final two groups to force a playoff. The Argentinian had a birdie chance on 18 but his 30-foot attempt missed the mark.
Jonathan Byrd, who had the low round of the day with a 66, was tied for third. Byrd was joined at 11-under with Martin Flores, Ryan Brehm and Joel Dahmen. Defending champion Kelly Kraft finished tied for 14th at 9-under par for the tournament.
As Bryan broke through for his first tour victory on Sunday, two other golfers were the big story line on Saturday.
Despite having played nearly 400 tournaments on both the Web.com Tour and PGA Tour, Greg Chalmers only had conditional status on the tour and arrived at Le Triomphe on Monday needing to qualify for the tournament.
“I just wanted to play a competitive round of golf,” Chalmers said. “I got Puerto Rico next week on the PGA Tour, and I just needed to play 18 rounds that was not me messing around with friends. It was opportunity to play a tournament.”
The Australian native took advantage of that opportunity as he first earned a spot in the field, and entered Sunday’s final round as the co-leader of the tournament at 12-under par.
Chalmers would shoot a final round of two-over 73 and finish the tournament tied for 7th.
“I shot eight under on Monday and that gave me a lot of confidence,” Chalmers said. “I have tried probably 20 times on the Web.com Tour, and this is first time I have gotten in.”
Dahmen meanwhile put off surgery to compete in this year’s Louisiana Open.
“Well, I got appendicitis,” Dahmen said. “I actually wasn’t scheduled to be here. I was scheduled for surgery, but I told the doctor there had to be another way. I got South America coming up, already paid for it all, let’s do something else. He said there’s no other way; it’s an appendix.”
Instead of surgery, Dahmen remained in the hospital for 36 hours and took massive amounts of antibiotics. Less than two weeks later, Dahmen was in contention of winning a tournament.
Dahmen would eventually finish tied for third for his fourth Top 10 finish in the past two seasons.
“Surgery would have meant I would have been out 4-6 weeks and that would have put me back,” Dahmen said. “I said,’ I’m going to go with it.’”
The Web.Com Tour returns to action with the Brasil Champions presented by Embrase on March 31 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.