Brad Bryant is a likable person.Bryant, the defending U.S. Senior Open champion, has a dry – almost unassuming – and selfdeprecating sense of humor that easily puts one at ease.You can talk with Bryant. You can talk with him and believe that he’s genuine in what he says when he’s talking back. That’s unlike many stars.Therein might be Bryant’s secret. The Amarillo, Texas, native doesn’t consider what he sees in the mirror as star power.But what Bryant, 53, sees is a person he knows well and a person he can appreciate.He sees a journeyman.”It is what it is. When I was on the PGA Tour, I was a journeyman,” Bryant said Monday before a press conference advancing the U.S. Senior Open, to be played July 31 to Aug. 3 at The Broadmoor. “And, still, that’s kind of what I’ll always be. I was someone who was nearly really good. And that ain’t bad in this world – especially on the PGA Tour.”Here’s a guy who has made more than $4.8 million over the past four seasons playing golf. But he’s not a star. He played in 559 events on the PGA Tour and earned more than $3.5 million. He finished in the top 100 money earners, “I don’t know, 15, 18 times,” he said. But he’s not a star.There haven’t been 200 players in the world better than Bryant during the past three decades. Yet, he’s not a star. And he’s fine with that.Takes a special makeup to be that way.Bryant turned pro in 1976. He won his first, and only, PGA tournament in 1995. His last PGA event was in 2004. That’s 28 years on tour if you’re counting – 28 years and only one victory.Many wouldn’t respect that. Many would wonder why he stayed. But not many have Bryant’s mentality. Not many know their mentality as well as Bryant knows his.”I’ve always had a real different view of second than most guys,” Bryant said.”They pay good money for second. I played golf primarily to take care of my family and so I can afford to do things like go fishing. It’s a great job, but also a tough job.”It’s a job that pays well if the performance warrants it. But still, it’s a job.Not that there is a correct way to look at it, but I don’t get the feeling golf is a job to Tiger Woods – it’s a conquest. Golf is about the victory to the world’s top players. It’s about that trophy. Many of them have more money than a reasonable person ever will spend.They’re not thinking about their family’s survival or living comfortably.Bryant was.”… Twenty years ago, it was all about the money,” Bryant said. “You had to make the cut. You had to make a check so you could put groceries on the table.”Sue and I, we had a deal, but I don’t think she took me seriously on it. We had a deal that when I turned 45, if we had the money, I was going to quit playing golf.”A financial adviser told Bryant and his wife that they’d never be rich but that Sue and their child would be taken care of.”He said, ‘But if you want to hunt fish or smoke cigars, you’re going to have to go earn the money to do it,'” Bryant said. “That’s exactly what he said. So, for the next five years, I basically worked just hard enough to support my fishing habit.”That had to be a rough way to work. Bryant had lost some of the excitement that golf brought him. He regained it in 2004 when he watched his younger brother, Bart, win the Valero Texas Open on the PGA Tour. In fact, Bryant lists his three biggest thrills in golf as watching his brother win the Texas Open, the Memorial and the Tour Championship.Bryant’s biggest moments weren’t his climb in the Champions Tour or his surprising-to-some victory in last year’s Senior Open.His biggest moments weren’t about him at all.That’s a likable person.-Columnist Milo Bryant can be reached at 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazettedev.gazette.com. Check out Milo’s blog, The Extra Milo, at milobryant.blogspot.com

Leonidas Milton Leathers III, second from left, and Bertram Hayes-Davis on Feb. 15 re-enacted the swearing in of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy on the steps of the Alabama capitol building in Montgomery. Photo by (AP)