Tour Pro Forced Into 16-Hour Drive To 3M Open After Flight Cancelled
Travel cancellations - as a result of the recent global technology outage - saw Wesley Bryan and Ryan Brehm's caddie, Lee Chaney end up making a long drive to Minnesota
![Main image of Wesley Bryan looking to his right - inset image shows route map from Salt Lake City, UT to Minneapolis, Minnesota](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/zQBSYN5HyKDmmMEFVXrnHU-415-80.jpg)
Wesley Bryan and Lee Chaney - caddie for Ryan Brehm - have just driven 16 hours from Salt Lake City in Utah to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Bryan had missed the cut for the eighth time in 10 starts while Chaney's boss Brehm finished 56th - both at the Barracuda Championship.
The PGA Tour pair had not long finished in Nevada when they planned to catch a flight from Salt Lake City to the host city of the 3M Open on Sunday night.
However, the recent global technology outage put a stop to that as their flight was cancelled and they were forced to rethink their plans.
First reported by Monday Q Info's Ryan French, Bryan and Chaney set about plotting a new way of reaching Minneapolis. A flight out of SLC for the Monday was not an option, and neither was catching a plane from somewhere else relatively nearby.
When @wesleybryangolf flight from the Cuda to the 3M was cancelled, he had two choices. 1, wait for Wednesday night flight or 2. Channel his mini-tour self, lie to Avis, and drive across the country with a caddie. He chose the latter. My storyhttps://t.co/hM51pckx3qJuly 22, 2024
The company they were initially travelling with said the earliest they could guarantee a new flight was Wednesday afternoon or evening - just hours before first-round tee times. Bryan and Chaney declined that suggestion before turning attention to the next best option - driving themselves.
The problem with that idea was two-fold. Firstly, the duo were told they wouldn't be able to collect their baggage until the following morning. And secondly, the company they had chosen to rent a car from stated they did not allow one-way reservations. Bryan said he would return the car to Salt Lake City International in a week's time. With that, the pair booked a hotel nearby and settled in for the night.
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At 5am, they woke up and headed back to the airport, only to now be told that Bryan's bag was already on its way to Minnesota via UPS, so they could only claim Chaney's suitcase.
Despite the issues, Bryan and Chaney began their monster journey east. Bryan told Monday Q Info's French: "It's really been a lot of fun, it felt like the mini-tour days." They also asked French to give the airline supervisor they dealt with, called Nakota Rodriquez, a shoutout as she was "amazingly helpful."
Bryan later admitted that he has no intention of dropping the rental car back with its parent company at Salt Lake City and is willing to accept the fine that lands on his desk.
Made it 🤙🏽 @acaseofthegolf1 @bryanbrosgolf pic.twitter.com/YxsPffOrE7July 23, 2024
He said: "I plan to leave [the rental car] at the Minneapolis airport and pick up my courtesy car. We will see what type of fees they hit me with. They say that Avis is the preferred rental car of the PGA Tour. We will see what that means."
Posting to his own social media accounts in the very early hours of Tuesday morning, one half of YouTube duo, the Bryan Brothers Golf, revealed he had made it to his rental accommodation with his bags successfully in tow.
Bryan will hope for a similar result to his best of the season - a runner-up finish to Billy Horschel at the Corales Puntacana Championship - if he is to successfully pay off those impending fines.
Jonny Leighfield is our Staff News Writer who joined Golf Monthly just in time for the 2023 Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup. He graduated from the University of Brighton with a degree in Sport Journalism in 2017 and spent almost five years as the sole sports reporter at his local newspaper. During his time with Golf Monthly, Jonny has interviewed several stars of the game, including Robert MacIntyre, Ian Poulter, and Lee Westwood. An improving golfer himself, Jonny enjoys learning as much about the game as he can and is hoping to reach his Handicap goal of 18 at some stage. He attended both the 150th and 151st Open Championships and dreams of attending The Masters one day.
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