Aurora’s Davis Bryant heading into DP World Tour championship

Bryant joins Patrick Reed as only Americans to make the final 50 of DP World Tour season

By Jim Bebbington

Aurora’s Davis Bryant tied for 49th place this weekend in the DP World Tour’s semi-final tournament, prepping him for the season’s championship tournament Nov. 12 to 15 in Dubai.

Bryant is in his second season on the DP World Tour – previously known as the European Tour – and had a strong season, finishing second twice and earning more than $1 million in purse money.

The tour’s final two events are its most lucrative and give points that can grant bonus money or PGA Tour cards based on the final points totals earned throughout the year. Bryant’s strong season earned him enough points to qualify easily for a full DP World Tour season in 2027 and he currently ranks 28th after Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship.

But with a PGA Tour card on the line, Bryant struggled initially this weekend at the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi. He shot a 4-over par Thursday round round of 76th placing him 60th in the field of 70.  But as the weekend went on Bryant began to hit more fairways and by Sunday shot a bogey-free round of 3-under par.

The DP World Tour this week published a long interview with Bryant in which he discussed his path, family and hopes for the future. 

U.S.-based players are a small minority on the DP World Tour, and playing on it confronts the players with a level of travel that few have experienced before. Colorado players who preceeded him on that Tour include Gunner Wiebe, born in Englewood, who played 2022 to 2025.

Bryant said in the interview that over two seasons on the tour he came through some difficult time but is proud he stuck with it.

“I enjoyed it, yes. Did I know what I was doing? No,” he said in the interview. “Was I kind of going through the motions? Yeah. I was just like, I’ve got a spot in these tournaments, or most of the tournaments… just go play, try and play well, figure it out as you go. And outside of like the golf preparation and really handling that, everything else was like, a crash course. I had no clue what I was doing. Did I miss home? Absolutely. I think there were some days I was like, why am I doing this? Do I really want to be in China? Do I really want to be here or there? But I kept reminding myself, you chose to give yourself this opportunity, you chose to pursue golf at the next level and you can compete, you can play. I had a couple of decent weeks last year and that made myself feel better about it but it was a disappointment after the end of the year. It was like: do I do this again? Do I do HotelPlanner Tour? Do I try doing Korn Ferry Q School again? Then I kept asking myself: do I want to play internationally again? Do I not? Do I want to play mini tours again in the States? Was this just kind of a free year to see how I liked it? And then getting through Q School again, it was like: you’re in the same opportunity but you know what to expect. I know I can compete, I know I can play and that’s exactly how this year’s played out. You can’t ask for anything else.”

Bryant qualified for both of his full DP World Tour seasons through the DP World Tour Q-School process.

The tournament this week was won by Jon Rahm and the field next weekend is stacked with 2026 major winners Rory McIlroy, Aaron Rai and Ryan Fox among others. After next weekend’s tour finale Bryant’s 2026 season will have included 29 tournaments in which he made the cut in all but five.

Jim Bebbington is the editor of Colorado Avid Golfer. Contact him at [email protected]

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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