Ryan Gerard talks w/Garrett on his mindset, dealing with pressure and more
all right joined by ryan gerard and ryan you know this is an interesting year that we’re in right now we’re halfway through it you’ve got six top 25 finishes so far how do you kind of assess your season so far um i’ve played pretty good so far this year i feel like uh you know getting a lot more comfortable out here just kind of getting in the routine every week and uh just finding my footing so um yeah would love to you know tack on a few more good finishes and maybe get a win at some point but overall really solid year pretty pleased with where we are but just looking for better things in the future yeah well when i think about like where you’re at specifically um yeah i know that you kind of got everything started with that huge w not win but that huge week you had at honda right that was two years ago and is it hard to believe already that top four that kind of got you special temporary status and kind of been building since then yeah it’s it’s crazy that it’s been two years i mean it feels like time’s flown by might not be because i play every single week out here but um i love golf and like it’s nothing that i wouldn’t like i’d be doing this like after a 9 to5 if i if i wasn’t good but um i really really enjoy the competition the grind and everything and i’m just lucky that i get to tee it up every week out here and um yeah it’s it’s crazy that it’s been two years well it’s interesting you say you love golf like where did that bug really start for you um my dad kind of just put a club in my hands as soon as i could walk and i i’ve never really like found something that kind of tests you and like forces you to be both physically and mentally locked in as as much as this game does and i would say that you know it’s something that you can do for a very long time and it i i just obsess over it i don’t know why i’m just i love it everything about it but um i think it the physical and mental uh nature of it combined with just like you have to be strategic you have to be smart there’s just so many little nuances to it um and and when you get in the with the right group of people it’s probably the most fun you’ll ever have in your life is a fourome or eight some or 16 some on a par three course with your buddies or who knows what it sounds like you’ve done some of that before have you been out in big groups or what yeah yeah um i’m lucky enough one of the courses that i play at they don’t really have a limit on how many people you can play with so um sometimes we’ll go there five or six and just whack them around and um play for a little bit of cash or you know dinner or something but i think the best the best memories in my life the things that i like won’t take for granted when i like can’t do this anymore are just from like just fun golf rounds and while pj tour is awesome like and i love competing but like it’s kind of both both sides of a coin where you never really do anything with golf that you find is um not fun at least for me right well it’s interesting i i think about um you’ve said in the past just now you’re talking about mental side but you’ve also said that you can overthink that’s one of the things you do is you overthink and that can get in your own way how do you have to overcome that like what are things you can put in place just hit the ball um you just take a lot of time over the ball you feel like or uh i i feel like a lot of guys i mean you can go like so many different ways with it you can get super technical you can get locked into technology you can get locked into what statistics tell you um but i think the the most freeing thing is just like allowing yourself to be just present and not trying to do too much with it and just being like i’ve worked a lot with like sports psychologists but just like being present and allowing what you can control like to happen and then uh whatever the result is you know just be okay with it um but yeah i i don’t like spending too much time like stepping off a shot or you know just get up and hit it quickly usually is the recipe for not overthinking golf shot just just get to it right yeah just get get to it no one wants to watch six hour rounds yeah exactly um also you’ve mentioned too in the past i think with ryan french on his podcast you’ve mentioned that it’s easy for you to not you know following the thing of not conserving enough energy during a week like it’s really about like figuring that out with your schedule like how have you done that in these couple years i think it’s kind of like a learned skill um you like when i went from college golf we’d play like one event every kind of three weeks and then we’d be on campus and just hanging out and like going to class and like just you know it it wasn’t as rigorous i would say from a golf specific standpoint it was more kind of balanced but now when basically you can spend every waking moment thinking about golf playing golf uh working out for golf like i love love being here but you have to kind of regulate yourself and when you play six seven eight weeks in a row um the back half of that your body is just going to start breaking down if you’re not careful so it’s it’s as much about rest sleep hydration and just understanding that if you’re going to play five six weeks in a row weeks one and two you can’t just like get off to the start of just beating balls for 12 hours a day um it’s it’s quality over quantity in terms of like practice and preparation it’s funny that you say that cuz you’re like the last guy on property practically maybe i should maybe i should practice what i preach but i um no we’re we’re searching a little bit um this week you know i think i’m hitting i’m swinging it well i’m hitting it well um the ball is going very far right now and that is not something that i’m used to so uh it’s probably good for next week at quail but right now i’m a little bit like scattered about uh how far 3-wood can go and um i i need to figure that one out and but i’m i’m swinging well so the there’s no real bad problems to have it’s just kind of understanding what happens and i mean i got to get here early tomorrow to be an alternate for a pram so i’ll have 5 hours in the morning and then i’ll cut myself off around 12:31 and kick the feet up before thursday you’re talking about quail for next week pj championship what is it that you’re looking forward to about that and and the prep that goes into a major i love like challenge the challenge of it i think quail is a very different test it’s it’s a kind of brutal like execution test uh i’ve heard a lot of things about the rough being up this year being moaned back into guys potentially it’s overseated um with kind of a ry grass i want to say right now so i would expect it to be very difficult like long punishing you know bad shots are going to be like very screwed and um just kind of knowing going into that that you have to hit it straight or you have to hit it so far that it doesn’t matter if you hit it straight and i don’t hit it that far so i got to hit it straight um but i think just understanding that you know those weeks once you get on the golf course just mental fortitude and just kind of mental exhaustion set in a little bit quicker um if you’re playing late on saturday or sunday and you have a chance to win you’re you’re going to be like tired like you’re not going to get off the golf course till 7 and it’s just going to be a long week and uh hopefully that’s where i’ll be and you know someone will be there but um you have to kind of prepare like you’re going to be there cuz if you don’t prepare for it and you get there then you’re not going to have a chance but if you do prepare for it and you don’t get there maybe maybe you’ll give yourself a chance to like back door or top 10 or something so maybe what like would you do like 91 18 or how would you play your holes will not be playing 18 holes in a practice round next week and i think which is crazy during a major to do that right with the length of time yeah it’s insane um i did that the first year my first ever professional start was the 2022 us open at brooklyn and i got there early with like “oh i’m going to play so many holes it’s going to be so sick.” and i was just worn out by like tuesday um i got there on like saturday but it was you you can definitely overdo it and that’s something that i’ve realized and a lot of guys out here this will probably be two three four weeks in a row and um you know it’s a luxury to take weeks off because that means you’re playing well um but going into a major it’s it’s about understanding like conserving energy but quail is a golf course a lot of guys have played before so um they can change a little bit but it’s not going to be too too different so we kind of know what we’re we’re stepping on property to see have you played it yet yeah i played the wells fargo there in 23 um i played in college there a couple times just with the uncc team i’m from north carolina so i’ve been lucky enough to be out there a couple times i actually played it last october on kind of like a corporate day so um yeah i’ve been there a bunch i i love the golf course it’s a very different test i would say from an architectural standpoint um it’s a lot more modern than a place like philly cricket and you know both sides of the spectrum can be awesome um but it’s it it’s going to be hard and i think people like watching hard and people guys like playing hard because it separates uh good from bad and um yeah it should be a lot of fun well speaking of hard i know that sundays there’s so much pressure on the pga tour to get a strong finish or or chance to win you have your veteran um pepsi on the bag his nickname pepsi u what is it like having what are you expecting out of him on a sunday with that pressure he’s just the consmate professional he knows exactly what to do when to do it he doesn’t get um too like high strong he’s not anxious he’s seen everything before i think you know he he likes being in contention he likes having chances to win and when we get there like you see kind of like the look on his face is like we’re gonna go get it it’s not kind of like a scared um nature and um yeah he he’s he’s great he’s been very helpful for me um i’m kind of reading what you need or yeah just like i’m i i’m young i know what i’m doing but i am young and i’m learning still and he’s got a wealth of knowledge that like we can draw upon in certain areas like 17 at rbc a couple weeks ago like notoriously the wind like swirls around that corner and he’s seen nine different wind directions on that hole and you know just he knows like where it’s coming from and where to misses and like when it’s blowing a certain way on 15 and 16 when we get to 17 he’s like dead set that you know this is where the shot needs to go with this trajectory instead of you so it can feel downwind and it’s actually into well good stuff ryan gerard appreciate the time and good luck thanks so much guys appreciate it all right man good to see you pleasure man yeah
