Well, the PGA-PIF deal has no end in sight, but the good thing is there doesn’t seem to be any active bad blood  between the two competing golf circuits. But that might have changed now. In a very bold move, Jay Monahan and Co had suspended Wesley Bryan for participating in The Duels. The Duels is a LIV Golf event conceived as a part of their Miami leg, where creators and pro golfers team up and compete against each other. Bryan was part of the creators and had teamed up with Dustin Johnson.

The Duels was posted on Grant Horvat’s YouTube channel where it garnered 2 Million views in 10 days. However, as soon as the video was put online, Wesley Bryan was suspended. The 2017 RBC Heritage Open winner was an active presence in the PGA Tour and now he is in a bit of a tricky situation.

Ryan French shed light onto the matter via his X page, Monday Q Info, providing some context. The tweet read, “Breaking: I spoke with Wesley Bryan this morning and confirmed that he has been suspended for participating in the LIV Duels event in Miami. I asked Wesley about his time on tour, whether he regrets playing the event, and what’s next.” And boy were some people pissed!

Phil Mickelson calls out PGA Tour’s actions

Phil Mickelson was livid. Remember, the reason he gave when joining LIV Golf. It is their unchecked use of their standing in the golfing world. For all ends and purposes, they had become a monopoly of sorts which allowed them to do their bidding without any repercussions. “They’ve been able to get by with manipulative, coercive, strong-arm tactics because we, the players, had no recourse. As nice a guy as [PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan] comes across as, unless you have leverage, he won’t do what’s right.” Mickelson had stated then.

And lot of that is making sense now, with their decision to ban Wesley Bryan and their push to prevent other creators from competing in the Duels event. Phil Mickelson has used this opportunity to call out the hypocrisy behind the functioning of the PGA Tour.

His tweet read, “Here’s a question. Normally when an entity violates independent contract law, they deny that it happened and forces the contractor/individual to prove that it did. In this case the  PGA Tour blatantly admits they are illegally banning an independent contractor so why doesn’t they DOJ step in and enforce the law? Why does the individual have to sue to enforcer the law? DOJ do your f***ing job!”

This is not the first time that Mickelson is reacting to the Earlier in a similar vein, Pro Golf Critic had tweeted, “Deleted my tweet about the YT creators at the request of ppl material to the events. Let’s hope sufficient pressure is applied so that these creators can enjoy the FREEDOM to create great content on ALL Tours so that we can enjoy their great content without fear of retribution!”  When one user replied to that stating that the tweet was deleted because it was proven wrong, Mickelson was not able to stay silent.

He confirmed the original tweet, stating,“You were absolutely correct. An email was sent threatening to ban all creators if they participated. They rescinded that threat to all creators EXCEPT Wes Bryan. They still banned him for a year.”

The PGA tour had initially informed through a third party that there was a chance for disciplinary action from the PGA Tour, including being excluded from any PGA Tour-affiliated events for creators taking part in the Duels. Multiple sources say the threats were later withdrawn yet Bryan’s been suspended.

While there were doubts regarding the legitimacy then, there are no doubts now. And Wesley Bryan who has been slowly carving a niche for himself in the PGA Tour has found himself in a very tricky position.

What’s next for Wesley Bryan?

Bryan is currently in the Dominican Republic to attend the Corales Puntacana Championship with his family, sharing rental space with another pro Ben Martin. This was the same event where he finished second last year, but he is not participating this year due to the suspension. Despite all that has happened Bryan is positive. “We had this vacation planned for months, so I decided we would still come down. It’s been a long time since we had a family vacation where golf wasn’t involved.” The PGA Tour pro stated.

He is planning to appeal the decision and hopefully the result will be positive. “For the last eight or nine years, the opportunities have been amazing. I’m extremely grateful to the Tour for that. I don’t want this to be the end of my professional golf career.” The one time PGA Tour winner explained.

He further added that he believes that there is nothing wrong in what he did and he will continue to push YouTube Golf forward, stating, “No, I don’t have regrets. That video is one of the most powerful videos in YouTube golf. We are going to continue to support Grant and grow the game through YouTube.”

Do you think PGA made the right move?