Wesley Bryan (left) and Sam Stevens (proper) had an adventurous journey to this week’s 3M Open.
Tim Heitman/Getty Photos
The entire world suffered technological points final weekend on account of a world outage attributable to CrowdStrike, with 1000’s of flights being cancelled or delayed as tech programs went down. PGA Tour execs weren’t spared. Simply ask Wesley Bryan and Sam Stevens.
The 2 execs didn’t qualify for final week’s Open Championship, so as a substitute they performed the opposite-field Barracuda Championship in Tahoe. They roomed collectively in Tahoe, and although Bryan missed the lower, he determined to remain the weekend and cling with Stevens reasonably than change his flight. With each gamers battling to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs, their subsequent vacation spot was the 3M Open midway throughout the nation in Minnesota.
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As soon as the match was finished Sunday, they started their journey by aircraft. However after they made it to Salt Lake Metropolis, the worldwide outage made its presence identified. Proper earlier than they boarded their connecting flight, the flight was cancelled.
That’s when Bryan got here up with a daring thought: Why not lease a automobile and drive to TPC Twin Cities, which, as Bryan instructed Golf Channel, is an 18-and-a-half hour drive?
Stevens was sport.
Whereas it’s simple to think about that lengthy of a highway journey rapidly changing into a monotonous nightmare, it turned out very otherwise. In reality, Bryan mentioned the 2 execs had “a blast.”
“I’ll be sincere, we had a good time. That was about as a lot enjoyable as I might have ever imagined,” Bryan instructed Golf Channel throughout follow on the 3M Open. “It helped not having spouse and children and attempting to determine the right way to coordinate. So two grown males in a automobile for 20 hours, we had a blast.”
So how precisely did our featured golfers cross the time within the automobile, which ended up being a strong 20 hours? Bryan detailed their actions, too, together with listening to some podcasts and stopping at quick meals eating places and vacationer sights alongside the best way.
“There was a number of telephone calls, we listened to a number of reveals, we stopped at a pair main landmarks just like the Mitchell Corn Palace and Wall Drug in South Dakota. These have been good ones. Spent a number of time in Wyoming. I don’t even assume we stopped, however possibly for gasoline one time in Wyoming. And hit a McDonald’s and a Hardy’s, after which had a lot enjoyable we forgot to eat dinner. So acquired right here round 1 a.m. this morning and realized I used to be starved. So I simply went to sleep as a substitute.”
Extremely, there’s one other twist on this story. When Bryan wakened after his lengthy highway journey, he discovered that his caddie’s spouse had gone into labor three-and-a-half weeks early, in accordance with Golf Channel, and he was pressured to discover a last-minute alternative.
However Bryan and Stevens weren’t the one Tour execs who bumped into points attending to the 3M Open. A gaggle of eight execs, Chan Kim amongst them, additionally had their flights cancelled. However as a substitute of renting a automobile and driving to Minnesota, they grouped collectively a chartered a non-public jet to the 3M, as Golf Channel’s Brently Romaine reported on X.
With everybody lastly at TPC Twin Cities, the 3M Open is about to get underway Thursday morning, July 25.
