3 days ago
Ryan Gerard continues first-time winners trend with victory at Barracuda Championship
While most of the golf world's attention was on the British Open, there was an opposite-field event on the PGA Tour taking place.
The 2025 Barracuda Championship, the final opposite-field tournament in 2025, offered a $4 million purse, a $720,000 first-place prize and 300 FedEx Cup Points, critical for those vying for a top 70 spot in the upcoming FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Who won the 2025 Barracuda Championship?
Former North Carolina Tar Heel Ryan Gerard, 25, tallied 47 points in the lone tournament on the PGA Tour to utilize the Modified Stableford scoring system to win by three points over past champion Erik van Rooyen at the Old Greenwood course at Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, California.
In the Barracuda, positive numbers are a good thing, as golfers earn 8 points for an albatross, 5 points for an eagle, 2 points for birdie, 0 for par, minus-1 for bogeys and minus-3 for double bogey or worse.
After 54 holes, Gerard was tied with Rico Hoey at 34 points but Gerard's 13-point Sunday was enough to hold off the field. Todd Clements put together a 16-point final round to finish solo third. Beau Hossler had the most points (17) in the final round and tied Max McGreevy for fourth, 10 points back.
Gerard is the 11th first-time winner on the PGA Tour in 2025. But did he see this win coming?
"I want to say yes, but you never really know in this game. Been playing a lot of really good golf. Felt like I haven't been quite getting the scores out of the shots that I've hit," he said. "It's been a long time being a long grind, and, yeah, it's pretty cool to end up on top."
While he had five bogeys on his Sunday scorecard, he offset them with two eagles and four birdies. Those two final-round eagles were his only two of the week.
"It's just like a culmination of like a lifetime of work. I can't tell you like how many hours I've spent hitting golf balls dreaming of winning on the PGA Tour," he said. "Yeah, it's really special."
Winners of the Barracuda Championship
These are the tournament champs dating back to 2012, when the current scoring system was first implemented:
2025 Ryan Gerard
2024 Nick Dunlap
2023 Akshay Bhatia
2022 Chez Reave
2021 Erik van Rooyen
2020 Richy Werenski
2019 Collin Morikawa
2018 Andrew Putnam
2017 Chris Stroud
2016 Greg Chalmers
2015 J.J. Henry
2014 Geoff Ogilvy
2013 Gary Woodland
2012 Scott Piercy
