Latest news with #RyanGerard
Axios
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Axios
Get to know Ryan Gerard, the Raleigh native who just won on the PGA Tour
It's been a great year for North Carolina golfers, especially for Raleigh native Ryan Gerard, who is coming off the first victory of his career at the Barracuda Championship earlier this month. Why it matters: The PGA Tour is back in North Carolina this week at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, and the home state event is a reminder of the rising number of North Carolinians thriving on tour. In addition to Gerard, Chapel Hill native Ben Griffin and Akshay Bhatia, who grew up in Wake Forest, are both in the Top 50 of the World Golf Rankings at the moment. It's also a banner year for the UNC golf team, which now boasts three alums on tour with Gerard, Griffin and rookie David Ford. Zoom in: Gerard, who is 25 and grew up playing at Wildwood Green Golf Club in Raleigh, is on his first full year on tour. His recent win gives the Ravenscroft School alum a guaranteed PGA Tour card for the next two years. Axios talked with Gerard about his win ahead of his appearance at the Wyndham. The Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity. What does getting a win on tour mean for you? Once you win on tour, it frees you up for a couple of years to go out there and play golf and not have to worry about job security. But at the same time, you don't want to get complacent. I think the goalpost kind of shifts. You don't want to be the one-time winner on the PGA Tour. You want to be the guy who's up there at the top of leader court every week. Why do you think there are more Tar Heels on tour now? I think it has a lot to do with the way the coaching staff, and coach Andrew DiBitetto, has bought into this kind of culture shift, making it so that it's more competitive in practice. Getting a bunch of really good guys in the same room that push each other and want to compete day in and day out drives you to be the best. Do you think changes in NIL will change that? I'd be lying to you if I said I knew the answer. I know it's very hard to compete with SEC schools when it comes to NIL and their contracts with football are so big that they can kind of fund the rest of the university's athletics. I think you're going to see a lot of success with SEC schools [in gold]. But I don't necessarily think it's going to put schools like UNC at a disadvantage, because we have a really, really great donor base. What were your favorite courses to play growing up? I played a course called Wildwood Green all the time growing up. It was a very good golf course to learn how to play golf on. There's a lot of character to the holes. The grass conditions were such that you had to be comfortable hitting from different spots, different lies and different angles. Growing up, Chip Watson and Roger Watson, who just passed, owned Wildwood Green and general managed Lonnie Poole Golf Course at N.C. State. They have been fantastic to me my entire life, and they allowed me to come out to Lonnie Poole and practice and play. Why has the Triangle started producing more professionals lately? I think the golf courses in North Carolina prepare you to play a lot of different types of golf. You're playing on Bermuda grass, which goes dormant in the winter. If you can learn how to chip on that, it's probably the most difficult surface in the world to execute on. From a weather standpoint, you can play golf nearly every day of the year, and there's a lot of character on the courses in the Triangle, with trees, bunkers and visually intimidating shots. And I think when you get a bunch of guys who want to compete in the same area, see success from others and have the tools and resources to learn how to be a proper player, your game travels when you play national tournaments. What are your go-to spots in Raleigh? It's difficult. I live in Florida now for weather reasons, and I am home very rarely during the season.
Jordan Times
24-07-2025
- Sport
- Jordan Times
Gerard holds off Van Rooyen to win PGA Barracuda title
LOS ANGELES, United States — Ryan Gerard held off South African Erik van Rooyen down the back nine on Sunday to win the Barracuda Championship for his first US PGA Tour title. The 25-year-old American, whose best career finish had been a runner-up effort at this year's Texas Open, eagled twice in the final round for the victory. "It's just like a culmination of a lifetime of work," Gerard said. "I can't tell you how many hours I've spent hitting golf balls dreaming of winning on the PGA Tour. It's really special." Gerard edged Van Rooyen 47-44 under the Modified Stableford scoring system to capture the event at Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, California. Under the unique scoring format, an albatross is worth eight points, an eagle five and a birdie two. Pars are no points while a bogey is minus-one point and any worse score is minus-three points. The tournament was played opposite the British Open, where top-ranked Scottie Scheffler won his fourth career major title and second major crown of the year. Gerard, who shared the 54-hole lead on 34 points, added 13 points in the last round with two eagles, four birdies and five bogeys. "I've been playing a lot of really good golf," Gerard said. "I've felt like I haven't been getting the scores out of the shots that I've hit and it has been a long time, a long grind. Yeah, it's pretty cool that I end up on top." Van Rooyen, whose first PGA victory was at the 2021 Barracuda, settled for his second runner-up finish of the year after the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in May. Filipino standout Rico Hoey and Gerard shared the 54-hole lead, but Hoey stumbled back with a double bogey-bogey start. Gerard birdied the second hole and eagled the third, and answered bogeys at the fourth and fifth with a birdie at the seventh to stand on 41 with his nearest rival on the course, Van Rooyen, seven adrift. After both birdied the 10th, Van Rooyen chipped in for birdie at 11. Gerard, however, answered at 11 when, after getting relief from a sprinkler head in his stance that let him move his ball to the fringe, he curled in a long eagle putt to reach 48 points, 10 ahead of Van Rooyen. Gerard made bogeys at 12 and 13 but responded with a birdie at 14 while Van Rooyen made bogey at 14 but eagled the par-five 15th to pull within six. When Gerard made a three-putt bogey at the par-three 16th, his lead was down to 47-42. Van Rooyen sank a birdie from the fringe at the 18 to climb within 47-44, but Gerard tapped in at 18 for par and the victory.
USA Today
22-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
2025 3M Open Start Time Thursday, Tee Times, Pairings & ESPN+ Live Streaming Coverage
The 2025 3M Open is July 24-27 at TPC Twin Cities, where Jhonattan Vegas will look to defend his title. $8.4M in prize money is on the line. Ryan Gerard shot -18 at Tahoe Mountain Club (Old Greenwood), taking home a tournament victory at the Barracuda Championship. Erik van Rooyen finished second (-17). Including tee times for the first round of the 2025 3M Open, plus TV and streaming info, we've got everything you need to know. Watch the PGA Tour all season long without cable! Start watching now on Fubo. And catch PGA Tour Live streaming, plus tons of other live sports and programming, with ESPN+. Tee times and pairings Round 1 TV & streaming information You can watch The Golf Channel and more on Fubo. ESPN+ is the exclusive home for PGA Tour Live streaming.
Washington Post
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
PGA Tour's race to the postseason takes focus. Senior British Open goes to Sunningdale
3M OPEN Site: Blaine, Minnesota. Course: TPC Twin Cities. Yardage: 7,431. Par: 71. Prize money: $8.4 million. Winner's share: $1.512 million. Television: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). Defending champion: Jhonattan Vegas. FedEx Cup leader: Scottie Scheffler. Last week: Scottie Scheffler won the British Open and Ryan Gerard won the Barracuda Championship.
Khaleej Times
21-07-2025
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
Golf's parallel DP World & PGA Tour events overshadowed by The Open last week
The parallel events against The Open on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour did not get much attention last week – with the last major on the men's professional golf calendar each year, as usual, grabbing all the headlines. Let's firstly look at the Barracuda Championship, the $4 million event held at Tahoe Mt Club, Truckee, California, US, held on the same dates as The Open. It is a co-sanctioned event aligned between the tours to also elevate the Genesis Scottish Open, held the week before at The Renaissance Club. The Barracuda Championship was won by Ryan Gerard (US) with 47 points. The event adopted a Modified Stableford format designed to reward aggressive play, with the following point system: Albatross – 8 points, Eagle – 5 points, Birdie – 2 points, Par – 0, Bogey – minus 1, and Double Bogey or worse – minus 3. Missed Opportunity It's also worth reflecting that, in today's increasingly global game, it remains a missed opportunity that only one of the men's Major championships is played outside the United States. There have been historical rumours linking the US PGA Championship being taken around the world – outside of the US – but there seems to be no recent talk or noise on this matter. Playing opportunities for both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are part of the mantra of today's tours, at whatever level. The previous week, the ISCO championship played alongside the Genesis Scottish Open was won by 24-year-old William Mouw (US) with a 10 under par score, with rounds of 67, 73, 69 and 61. Other notables in contention included. Paul Peterson (US) is one back and Manuel Elvira (Spain), a further two shots back. Success for JC Ritchie On the HotelPlanner Tour, JC Ritchie won the German Challenge powered by VcG at Wittelsbacher Golfclub. The South African, who is now a five-time HotelPlanner Tour winner, signed for a six under par round of 66 on the final day, building on a five-shot overnight lead to cruise to an eight-shot win on 24 under par, with Englishmen Joshua Berry and Tom Lewis sharing second. Ritchie climbs four places to second on the 2025 Road to Mallorca Rankings with the win and looks certain to return to the DP World Tour after losing his playing privileges in 2023. Joshua Berry (Eng) leads the Rankings, with Maximilian Steinlechner (Aut) in third with Renato Paratore (It) in fourth, following his two HotelPlanner Tour victories in the UAE earlier in the season. The top 20 players at the end of the season all get promoted to the 2026 DP World Tour. The Road to Mallorca takes a one-week break before returning from July 31st - August 3rd for the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by The R&A at SCHLOSS Roxburghe.
