Bryant is seriously in the race, but not all serious on the course  PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator SONOMA, Calif. -- Make that a three-man race.  Brad Bryant played himself into feasible contention during the third round. (Greenwood/WireImage)
At the start of the week, the battle for the Charles Schwab Cup was seemingly down to Jay Haas and Loren Roberts. Sure, Tom Watson and Brad Bryant had a shot at winning, provided they walked away with a victory at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, but both were over 600 points behind No. 1 Roberts. Bryant, however, had something to say about that two-man thing. He took full advantage of moving day Saturday, shooting a 5-under 67 for his third round in the 60s at Sonoma Golf Club. "[The Charles Schwab Cup competition] goes on all year, and you go play your best, and it [always seems to] boil down to Sunday here because we're playing for so many points this week. "And I think that at this point, the best possible thing that could happen to me is to go out there tomorrow and just not think about anything, just sort of follow [caddie] Tony's directions, just go play golf. So, hopefully, we will not be worried about scenarios or anything else - just try to go play." His third round featured six birdies and just one bogey, but it could have been much worse. Bryant got up and down to save par at No. 14 after his tee shot found the bunker. He also eked out a par at the final hole after a wayward tee shot. "I slashed it in the rough, chipped it out and wedged it in there about six feet and made it for par. I was really proud of that par. Usually when I do that, it's a bogey," Bryant said. That saved par meant the difference between a tie for second with Jim Thorpe, one shot back of Denis Watson, and sitting in a tie for third with Eduardo Romero. It also means he will play in the final group on Sunday. If he were to win the tournament on Sunday and take the Charles Schwab Cup, it's not like he wouldn't deserve the trophy that rewards consistency throughout the season and top-10 finishes. Bryant won twice in 2007, including a successful title defense at the Regions Charity Classic in May followed by his first major championship in Wisconsin. "For the last two years, I've been third on the money list...it's just Loren and Jay, I just can't beat those guys. And occasionally I get to beat them, if they don't play real good. And looks like this week, if I play well tomorrow, I might get them." The fact that he remained in the hunt is surprising, given that Bryant himself described his play during the second half of the year as "poor". He hasn't finished inside the top 10 since his U.S. Senior Open win, partly due to a back injury that prevented him from inching closer to perennial favorites Haas and Roberts. His back has troubled him for over a decade but has only flared up once during his two-year career on the Champions Tour, where Bryant has amassed four wins to add to his one victory at the 1995 Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic on the PGA TOUR. "Through the years, it's been kind of a chronic [pain]. And there's no real problem. I'm just old and fat. If I would work out, it would be all right," Bryant joked. Bryant sobered up, though, as the quote reminded him of his friend Payne Stewart, who passed away eight years ago this week. Just days before Stewart's plane went down, Bryant, clearly in pain and hunched over, had walked into the locker room in Disney World. Stewart was sitting on a bench, saw his body language and asked, "Bradley, your back's hurting again, isn't it?"  Brad Bryant likes the shadow of his brother Bart. (Cohen/WireImage) "I said, 'Yeah, it is,'" Bryant, a jolly guy with a bushy mustache, recalled. "I said, 'Gosh, I don't think I have a very good back.' And he said, 'There's nothing wrong with your back, you just have a really terrible front.' It's kind of the last thing that Payne said to me." Bryant never reached the levels of stardom that Stewart did, nor even achieved the notoriety that his younger brother has found on the PGA TOUR. For a while, Bryant claimed he was being introduced as the second-best golfer in his family since younger brother Bart Bryant had distinguished himself with wins at THE TOUR Championship and the Memorial Tournament. Despite earning a victory at the U.S. Senior Open -- arguably the toughest major on the Champions Tour this season at Whistling Straits -- Bryant hasn't seen an increase in his profile and doesn't expect to anytime soon. But he'd rather live a quiet, down-to-earth life as Brad Bryant than deal with Tiger Woods-type stardom. "My caddie, he told me one day, he came up to me and said you've got the greatest job in the world. I said, 'Well, yeah, how is that?' "And he said, 'Well, you get to play golf every day. You're making lots of money, and nobody knows who you are.' That was perfect. What a great deal, you know?" The day Bryant earned his victory at the U.S. Senior Open he was carrying, as he typically does, a packet with Bible verses written on four or five cards. It was a particularly windy day at Whistling Straits, but Bryant, who looked to be out of contention as Tom Watson was running away with the tournament, fired a 68 for the second-largest come-from-behind victory at the U.S. Senior Open. "I was carrying the [packet] with a Bible verse that says that you need to have faith in the things that are unseen. And it was just great, just understanding that, whatever happens, things are pretty good." This week, he's employing the same mentality: whether he wins the tournament, wins the Charles Schwab Cup, wins a big, fat payday, he cares more about the unseen than tangible gains. "If I go out tomorrow and shank every shot, it's been a good year. So what's to lose? I get to start the next year in Hawaii, what a place to go to, and I got a job next year, which is a real thing to be grateful for. And I got healthy kids and a nice wife. So man, things are pretty good."
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