Fairways of Life is joined by Ryan Gerard, a winner on the PGA Tour who is rising up the ranks due to stellar play.
Ryan Gerard coming off a recent victory on the PGA Tour. Yes, it is a breakthrough. He’s won three times at facts amongst the professional ranks including that 2025 Barracuda. Uh he’s won the Cornferry Tour. He’s won the PGA Tour Canada. 47 PGA Tour starts in all six career top 10s and his 2025 has been crazy good. Nine top 25s, four top 10s, including a tie for eighth at the PGA Championship. He was a runner up at the Valero Texas Open 2 plus his first PGA Tour victory as I mentioned to you at the Barracuda. That was the event that was opposite the Open at Royal Port Rush. Currently, he’s number 29 in FedEx Cup standings. That’s what I’m referring to. We’re watching someone ascend right before our eyes. He’s reached number 50 in the official World Golf Rankings. Uh UNC alum, he turns 26 in only four days. Pleasure to welcome the show, Ryan. How you doing? a prehappy birthday to you a few days out. I’m doing great. Thanks so much for having me. Um, loving the loving it so far. What’s What changed? What What was the the flip of the switch for you that that gave you amongst other things? Obviously, the confidence to be able to play at the level that you are right now. I think just a lot of people in my life have been really really positive to me and I’ve played a lot of good golf for the last 5 to 10 years and just tried to get incrementally better and learn from the mistakes and learn from experience and um when I get opportunities to make sure that I kind of slam the door on them. So, uh, it’s been a long time of just kind of, uh, a lot of work, a lot of, uh, a lot of learning, but, um, it’s nice when it all comes full circle. I want to ask you about the PGA Championship this year to do what you did at the PGA Championship, the lead after round one, etc., etc. What was going through you to this point? You just talked about how it’s learning, you learn from it, and you carry it forward, but what was it like when it was actually happening? What were your emotions as you were in the in the middle of that fray? I mean, it’s it’s scary. It’s it’s cool. It’s like everything you dream of. Um that feeling kind of when you’re in a position that you’ve only ever thought might be possible like in a dream or when you sit at night and you think about what would be the most cool thing that could possibly happen to you on a golf course. So I mean your heart’s beating fast. Um you can’t really feel like your hands very well. your legs are a little shaky. Um, just a lot of stuff like that where, you know, you feel comfortable but uncomfortable at the same time. And I feel like you learn a lot about yourself. Um, when you’re uncomfortable in a situation that you want to be in. And what do you default to when you’re uncomfortable in a situation that you otherwise wanted to be in? When you said you have trouble feeling your hands and your legs are shaking, where do you where does your body go? Is that when the endless hours of practice start to kick in and innately your body does what it’s capable of? Yeah, it’s it’s basically all kind of like muscle memory takes over. Um lots of hours of hitting shots. Um really like key swing thoughts or just focusing on one or two things to kind of uh reenter, refocus and get all that energy working. in a positive way instead of a nervous way. And do you have when you talk about swing thoughts, do you have like maybe one or two go-to swing thoughts or does it change based upon the game that you bring to the course that day or week? I basically have one and it’s um it’s starting my left shoulder turning around my spine and I kind of like narrow that down a little bit to maybe being more like start your shoulder. Um because there’s only really a small amount of time right before slash during the golf swing that you can kind of think about anything. And um that’s kind of what I’ve narrowed down to recently and it’s it’s been working. Um but you don’t you can’t think about 10 different things and expect to hit a good golf shot. Um you’re just going to be overwhelmed. So incredible. Do you work with anybody from a sports psychology standpoint? Yeah, I do. I have a really great sports psychologist. Uh her name’s Haley Hughes. Um when I was at UNC, she was working kind of with the athletic department there. uh helping some of the athletes and um once I left school and she ended up starting her own practice. So, I’ve been lucky enough that been working with her for about uh 6 years or so and just really helps kind of like understand cuz she she played college hockey, so she she gets the competitive aspect, but she really helps me understand when I’m in a position that I feel uncomfortable in or um when I’m in a position where I’m not sure what’s going on, uh that I really just need to trust myself and control what I can control. There’s a lot of variables in golf that are beyond the control of the person swinging the club. Like as soon as the ball leaves club face, it’s it’s everything’s up to whatever could possibly happen. So, uh to just be okay with the result, focus on the process, and just try and do the best that I can do at every given moment. And um when I do that, I can’t really get mad. I can’t really uh be upset about the result. Obviously, the results the only thing that matters, but if you control your process and you do everything possibly that you can do, I mean, that’s that’s as much as you can ask for, right? What what comes first at least for you? Uh confidence or or is it execution? Do you understand what I’m saying? And it’s all of a sudden you start hitting some really good shots, edges, everything’s working here and your confidence builds on it. Or did you have the confidence coming in just in light of this conversation of understanding the process and being where your feet are? Which direction did it work for you? It’s it’s got to be uh confidence first. I mean, you can build confidence in practice. You can build confidence in practice rounds, money games, chipping contests, whatever it might be. But if you don’t feel like you’re going to step up and execute that shot in a tournament, you you don’t really have a chance to execute it. So, you got to be able to just kind of push all the negative thoughts to the side. um really lock in on what you can do and just sit there and um block everything else out and just focus on hitting one good shot at a time and just understanding that the most important swing that you’re going to make is the one the one that you’re about to. Is it true that you learn more in what you fail to accomplish than what you learn when you accomplish your dream? I’d like to think so. Um, maybe that’s just for me, but uh when you win, when you accomplish dreams, like it’s awesome. It’s fantastic, but I don’t really do a whole lot of like reflecting on the great shots that I hit. you kind of can go back and say how cool of a shot that was or how awesome it looked in the air, but when I go and I talk about getting better, when I go and I talk about um learning, it’s it’s always from moments that I fell short or things that I didn’t do that I should have or um just not fully committing to a shot at a key key moment. So I think you learn a lot from the times that you come just short instead of the times that you fail miserably. You can you can write the ones that are miscuts off just because um you know sometimes you just don’t have it. And you know, a part of getting better, maturing, and growing as a person and a as a player is um kind of raising that floor of your game so that those off weeks become better. But it’s when you feel like you’re playing decent or you feel like you’re playing good and you get in a situation where everything is nervy and you have an opportunity to do something special and you don’t quite get it done. That’s that’s when you can draw a lot of positives from, but also go out and really understand that there there is learning in there. There is a there is a kind of like a golden ticket hidden hidden in there that you got to go find. You know, when you think about a victory on the PGA tour, and I’m assuming I and I’m curious about this, too, uh that you win on the PGA Tour. In fact, you were the 999th person to win on the PGA Tour. I’m not sure if you if you realize that. So, less than a thousand people all time have accomplished what you’ve accomplished. You will carry that with you forever more. No matter what happens, you’re a winner on the PGA Tour. Did you give yourself the time, the gratitude, the moment to kind of reflect on the significance of what you did? Yes, but it wasn’t until much later. I mean, it didn’t feel real at first. Uh had a couple like ceremonies, interviews, um sponsor things. So, it was it like it was all kind of like right there all at once and it was awesome. But it it didn’t really sink in until um kind of the next morning sitting in the hotel room kind of like stuff everywhere like golf clubs unpacked, suitcase, whatever. got a check out at 11:00 a.m. and just kind of sitting there and it’s like um I worked my entire life to get to the PGA tour to give myself a chance to win and it was really just a dream to be a winner and the fact that I accomplishment or the fact that I accomplished that and that accomplishment, you know, feels so fulfilling but it also feels so empty. It wasn’t exactly what I expected. It was something that was amazing, but just kind of like eats at you a little bit to get the next one to go out there and um make sure that it’s not the only one that you get. And um I think I find that I hate losing more than I love winning. And I think there’s a lot of people like that kind of in competitive professional sports. Yeah. Um but it it makes you really kind of like cherish that moment of just calmness when you’re kind of sitting there for five 10 minutes just really soaking in kind of how cool of an accomplishment it was. because after that um just mentally I I feel like it’s kind of back to it and um I really I really hate losing and I I want to make sure that that’s not the only time that I collect a win on the PJ tour. Awesome stuff. Amazing stuff. When you mentioned when you came back to the room there’s golf clubs everywhere, golf gloves, clothes, blah blah blah. Is that the normal state of your hotel room sometimes? Uh yeah, there’s a unmade bed behind me right now in Greensboro. Um I I live out of hotels basically, so I wouldn’t say that I uh I wouldn’t say that I have any sort of system. My clothes kind of just stay in my suitcase and then kind of migrate around the suitcase. There’s like organized chaos around the suitcase. And then at the end of the week when I bring the golf clubs in and um I’m packing everything, it just becomes a little bit chaos. So, uh yeah, it gets that way sometimes. Did you ever misspack? You get to the tournament and all of a sudden you don’t have a shirt for Sunday or you you didn’t have the trousers that you hope to have? Rarely. I think a lot of it is like you’ll forget um like socks or something. you just completely forget them and it’s and it stinks. It’s it’s awful. You gotta scrge around. Um I packed a pair of socks that had a hole in them in Detroit a couple weeks ago and I had to get Pepsi to run into the pro shop and buy socks like 45 minutes before tea time. Um but I think a lot of it is just, you know, we’re so lucky as PJ Tour players. Um, you know, it’s really one phone call and anything I need, like I have a bunch of great partners that can kind of help me out in a pinch, get me something within a day or two. So, as long as I realize that by Monday, uh, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, I’m I’m ready to rock. Hey, migrating clothes and holes in your socks just makes you more human to all of us. Our guest is Ryan Gerard coming off a recent victory on the PGA Tour. Breakthrough victory at that. That breakthrough victory will earn him starts into the century, the players, and the PGA Championship amongst his spoils. Uh when you think about that, Ry, you know, this kind of goes back to that same thing. It wasn’t until day later that it kind of the realization of what you accomplished kind of hit you. How fast did it hit everybody else in your orbit? Uh, I think everyone was pretty pretty psyched immediately. I mean, I didn’t know it, but my agent flew in. He was there on property for the last nine holes or so, and I had no idea. Um, my caddy Pepsi’s been doing it for a very long time, and I think he was he was pretty ecstatic because I don’t think he’d won in a few years, so this was nice for him to kind of get back into it. and then um family, friends, everyone rooting me on really really hard and know there were a lot of uh kind of nervous moments for him. But I think uh hopefully it was it was tears of joy in the end um because I know my my mom was watching freaking out and uh that’s awesome. Every everyone kind of around was very very nervous but um I’m glad that I’m glad that it worked out nicely for everyone. It’s amazing. What What’s the story? Instead of me recounting it, I’m going to ask you to tell it yourself if you would, please. What happened with you and Ben Griffin in the communication uh before the event about heading to Royal Port Rush or playing in this? Yeah. So, I was playing the Scottish Open um the week prior to to the Open and um I played so bad that I got to play in the last group on Sunday off of 10. So, like literally the other side because they did a little split tea because of some some fog that came through. So, I I played so bad that I was playing dead last just on the opposite side of golf course and um couldn’t get a flight out Sunday night. had to fly Monday, flew Monday, was like fifth or sixth alternate for the open. Wasn’t going to get in. And then couple people withdrew, someone else got injured. All of a sudden, I land in New York um halfway through my flights and I’m second alternate. And I’m sitting there thinking, “Oh gosh, I don’t know if I can skip the opportunity to play in a major, especially one as cool as the Open Championship.” But, you know, a lot of people already withdrew. Have some people on the ground telling me it’s not not a whole lot of positive kind of news for my direction. positive for everyone that no one’s really hurt, but um for me, not a whole lot of opportunities to get in this field, I think. And um texted Ben, texted a couple guys. um my Caddyy Pepsi, he was texting some caddies, uh kind of keeping in touch with the RNA people and just kind of figured, you know, go to Reno, try and prepare for um the Barracuda, but if for some reason end up first alternate by Tuesday, Tuesday night, I’d um I’d catch a flight somewhere that I could get a direct flight to Belfast and um go from there. So, ended up not needing to get to that and I unfortunately would have stayed second alternate. So, I’m sorry for Sam Stevens. He he was first and he didn’t get in, but he had a great week last week to hopefully make up for it. Sure. And um just it worked out it worked out well for me that I kind of stuck to my guns. I really liked playing at that golf course in Barracuda. played there a few years ago, finished top five and kind of had some some good good mojo and I felt like my game was in a good spot. So, it was just a matter of time before I pieced it all together. And um I’m happy I made that decision and it was a tough one, but it clearly was the right one. And um I I became very okay with whatever was going to happen Tuesday evening. Um I was kind of at peace with the decision that I made and I think that that served me well in the long run. Did Ben send you a I told you so text? Yeah. Yeah, there were a couple I told you so. There were a couple see you should never not listen to me. Um and we played Yes. played yesterday afternoon at Windom and you know he’s he’s a really good buddy of mine when I was a uh freshman at he was a senior. So, um, I’ve known him for forever and been really good friends for a while and, uh, kind of that good naturatured banter that you can only get with some of your close buddies where you never really want to give them props. It’s always kind of giving him a hard time. But, um, deep down everyone knows, uh, you know, he was super pumped for me. I’ve been just beyond ecstatic for him at the season that he’s having and, uh, his wins that he’s racked up. So, you know, it’s it’s it’s been really cool. Has that been motivation for you? Absolutely. Yeah. I I I don’t want him to feel like he can just run me over and um you know, he’s been he’s been giving it to me pretty good so far this year. And I uh I got to fight back a little bit here at the end. Try and try and catch him in some way, shape, or form. But he’s been playing fantastic. And uh I just Yeah, I love the kid. He’s fantastic. But I don’t want him to beat me. Like just absolutely do not want him to beat me. You are 29th in FedEx Cup points. Uh it’s head shaking when you think about it. You’re playing this week and hopefully you’re going to have a run ahead of you in those playoffs. What is your mindset as we sit here on the eve of the Windham championship and heading into the FedEx Cup playoffs? Um, I think right now for me there’s a lot of really cool opportunities. Um, but I don’t really have anything to lose. I mean, I think I’m going to be in Memphis next week. I think mathematically I’m pretty much good for BMW. Um, East Lake would be an absolute bonus. And they got rid of the starting strokes at East Lake. So, you know, uh, for someone like me that could just sneak in kind of under the radar and start dead even with Scotty, I mean, it’s it’s kind of a perfect year for someone to come in and shake things up. So, I have absolutely nothing to lose. And I don’t say that in a way that’s like, you know, other people do have things to lose, but um, I shouldn’t be here this season. That means coming off the corner tour, it’s really hard to just keep your card, especially in a year where there’s only 100 100 jobs instead of 125. But, you know, game feels solid. Been working hard. Um, feel like, you know, we’ve been trending for a while and it’s nice to piece the results together, but love to finish the season on a high note and go out and do some damage. Before I ask you about your sponsors, which is our way, Ryan, of saying thank you to you for spending some time with us, I got a couple other questions I want to ask you. First of all, from the standpoint of not self-editing, not holding yourself back, but putting yourself in a mindset of being completely wide open to possibilities. Have you allowed yourself the thought that the run that you’re on and as well as you’re playing with the amount of events that are left before the decisions on captain’s picks for a Ryder Cups that maybe? Um, no, not really. I haven’t really thought too much about that one. I mean, it it’d be really cool to play a Ryder Cup and um you know, I’d love to maybe definitely now, but at some point in the future, but uh I got I got more work to do to to make that one happen. Um I don’t think anyone really has me on their their short list of guys on for captain’s picks and um you know, just go out, keep piecing together good results, and uh that could change. But right now, no, I just I just got to go. I got to go play better to make that one happen. Good. I I hope you do. I mean, I hope you go out and win the next two events and it and the conversation is unavoidable. I do want to ask you this though before that sponsor’s question that I promise you I’ll ask and that is now that you’re on the PGA Tour and you obviously know that you’re now the CEO of your own brand and it is a global brand once you make it onto the PGA Tour. What do you want the message of your brand, the Ryan Gerard brand to be to the world? Work hard, have fun, fight for every shot. Um, just kind of go out there and uh live out your dreams. I mean, I I’ve been dreaming of playing on the PJ tour since as long as I can remember, since I picked up a golf club. And um it’s really really cool that that dream has become a reality and hopefully will stay a reality for a very long time. And um I have the opportunity to do so many so many cool things and uh take care of my family, take care of people close to me and um just really kind of compete at the highest level and that’s that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. So, um, we’re just going to go out there, not take anything for granted, and, uh, try and make the most of every opportunity we get. Absolutely. Love it. Love the philosophy. Okay. To that question, uh, the the people and the companies that you’ve surrounded yourself to make you what you are. Who are they? Um, Peter Malar, uh, they’ve done great by me. Um, Scott Mahoney, he’s the he’s awesome. He’s in charge. His son and I played on the same high school golf team. So, uh, it’s kind of kind of insane how that worked out, but I’ve known them for forever. So, it was a very, uh, no-brainer for them to come on and help me. Um, Berkeley Capital, uh, Rob Carter and the guys in Charlotte, um, they they do a great job. uh just kind of uh keeping me keeping me grounded, helping me out, making sure that you know uh when I played Quill Hollow, there was quite a few people out supporting and um Titus, Foot Joy, Scotty Cameron, uh Vokei, all those guys in the Kushnet family. Um, they’ve done fantastic job just, you know, making sure that as dumb as I am sometimes when it comes to golf clubs or as silly as their quest that I have to kind of walk me through them or um, make anything that I could possibly think of from an equipment or clothing standpoint happen. Dude, you got to ask FootJoy to send you some new socks, too. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. every every every Thursday that I have a hole in them, they’ll they’ll get a call. It was great talking to you. We’re really excited about the run that you’re on. Proud of what you’re doing, and we wish you the very very best. Thanks so much.
