{"id":104802,"date":"2025-05-15T23:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T23:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/104802\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T23:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T23:49:11","slug":"unknown-american-ryan-gerard-shocks-the-pga-championship-and-reveals-how-a-brutal-college-coach-helped-him-thrive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/104802\/","title":{"rendered":"Unknown American Ryan Gerard shocks the PGA Championship… and reveals how a brutal college coach helped him thrive"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time the PGA Championship<\/a> was played here at Quail Hollow, Ryan Gerard was busy moving into his dorm room a few hours away at the University of North Carolina<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A week after that tournament in 2017, the Tar Heels golf team left Chapel Hill to make the journey down to Charlotte for a round on the course that had just been graced by golf\u2019s very best.<\/p>\n

Eight years later, Gerard now stands as one of the early, if surprising, contenders to win that very tournament and the first major title of his career after a shock opening round that has him competing with the game\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n

Gerard\u2019s five-under par 66 was the best round of the players in the morning wave, which included\u00a0Rory McIlroy<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Scottie Scheffler<\/a>, and was only beaten by one rival: Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas snatched the lead late on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His round consisted of six birdies and an eagle with three bogeys that probably left him feeling like he could have capitalized more.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old was born three hours northeast in Raleigh and stayed nearby to play college golf for UNC. He only earned his PGA Tour card this year and so far he\u2019s been solid if not spectacular.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan <\/p>\n

Ryan Gerard shocked the PGA Championship with a brilliant first round at Quail Hollow<\/p>\n

\"Gerard <\/p>\n

Gerard was born in North Carolina and played college golf for the UNC Tar Heels<\/p>\n

Gerard has just two professional wins to his name \u2013 neither on the PGA Tour – and two major championship starts. He missed the cut at the 2022 US Open and finished T-56 at the same tournament a year later.<\/p>\n

So although his first round may have come to a shock to everybody else, Gerard was not surprised he delivered where he feels most at home.<\/p>\n

\u2018I feel very comfortable here,\u2019 he said after his round. \u2018There’s a lot of people here that I know and I’ve been fortunate enough to play this golf course a few times. And all of that is fantastic, and it’s definitely helped in the preparation.<\/p>\n

\u2018I love being here. It’s a fantastic place. North Carolina in general, they show out for their guys in light blue. I heard so many \u201cGo Heels” today and just appreciate everyone that’s supporting.\u2019<\/p>\n

But the surprise among fans did not stop there because Gerard was not the only local favorite to impress. Alex Smalley made the most of his last-minute entry into the tournament by putting together a fine opening round.<\/p>\n

Unlike Gerard, Smalley was not born in North Carolina. However, he played for bitter college rivals Duke and has since made Greensboro, around two hours north of Charlotte, his home.<\/p>\n

His opening round was made even more remarkable by the fact he had just 15 hours\u2019 notice that he was in the field after Sahith Theegala\u2019s late withdrawal due to a neck injury.<\/p>\n

Smalley seized that opportunity and posted a four-under par 67 that left him in a share for second place.<\/p>\n

\"Gerard <\/p>\n

Gerard revealed his college coach wouldn’t let the team leave the 18th until they all made par<\/p>\n

\u2018I prepared just like I could any other tournament,\u2019 Smalley said after his round.<\/p>\n

\u2018I actually went home after the tournament last week in Myrtle Beach. Drove home Sunday night. I think it rained pretty much all day here on Monday, and I drove down Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u2018Played the front nine on Tuesday after the hour-and-a-half- or two-hour delay we had, and I played the back nine yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

\u2018I really prepared just like any other week. Obviously it’s interesting being first alternate. I was losing hope after every passing hour. And you know, you hear about everybody’s ailments as being first alternate, as well.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was prepared to be here all day today if I didn’t get in yesterday afternoon or last night. Like I mentioned before, obviously I feel for Sahith, but it was nice to know before the morning that I was going to play so I could kind of mentally prepare for that.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gerard admitted after his round that he and Smalley know each other \u2018really well\u2019 and they played together often as juniors while showing some light-hearted disdain for his Duke education.<\/p>\n

Speaking of education, it was Gerard\u2019s UNC coach who gave him what could prove to be the most important lesson of his life over the course of the next three days.<\/p>\n

\"Alex <\/p>\n

Alex Smalley, who played for Duke and now lives in North Carolina, also impressed in round one<\/p>\n

\"Smalley <\/p>\n

Smalley was given only 15 hours’ notice that he was playing after Sahith Theegala\u2019s withdrawal<\/p>\n

He recalled how six months after that PGA Championship here at Quail Hollow in 2017, the coach made the six UNC golfers walk to the 18th tee and told them they couldn\u2019t leave until they all made a par at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u2018We were out there for quite a while. I learned a lot about the 18th hole on that day and I hope that carries forward into this week,\u2019 he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to say it took like four or five times. Like we’d go, all six of us would play the hole as a group, three guys would make bogey, go back to the tee, all six of us would play, two guys would make bogey. And then you just didn’t want to be that one guy that had like the 10-footer for par that missed it for everyone to go back.<\/p>\n

\u2018It probably took an hour or so but it was fun and we did make it happen eventually. We weren’t going to leave unless we made that happen.\u2019<\/p>\n

Gerard actually bogeyed the 18th on Thursday but this time around he was allowed to go back to the locker room without a par and dream of what might be come Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time the PGA Championship was played here at Quail Hollow, Ryan Gerard was busy moving into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[92,2826,93,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-104802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-sport","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114514530486783579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}