Trust us when we say that on this weekend, when the Tour Championship will be decided and the winner saunters away with $10 million, contender Ryan Gerard should be among those guys you’re rooting for. Yes, we know his Q Score doesn’t compare to those on the leaderboard like Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, or Collin Morikawa. Gerard is in only his second full year on the big tour, and his lone win came 13 months ago in an alternate-field, Stableford scoring event, the Barracuda Championship, that no longer exists.
But we’d also like to remind you of why Gerard deserves mad respect for his work ethic and love of the craft. The North Carolina alum made headlines last December when he flew 20,000 miles roundtrip to a DP World Tour event on the island of Mauritius simply for the chance to finish high enough to get into the top 50 in the world and qualify for his first Masters. That Gerard then pulled through by reaching a playoff that he lost to get to No. 46 was one of the greatest stories of the golf season. At Augusta National in April, Gerard soaked up every experience and finished T-38 in his debut.
Gerard is now becoming a legitimate force, too, having risen to 27th in the world, and he just strikes us as a really down-to-earth, good guy who is happy to share thoughts on himself and his game, as he did after the second round at East Lake.
So, yes, you’ll root for the big names because that’s what we do in golf, but save a little love for the Ryan Gerards, too.
|
Anticipation for the 51st Walker Cup is high, at least judging from ticket sales. The R&A announced that next week’s two-day competition between the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland, being held for the first time at Ireland's Lahinch Golf Club, is sold out, with 8,000 fans expected to attend. That includes more than 1,700 kids 15 and younger watching for free with a paying adult. The R&A is now making a plea for fans without tickets to “not travel to the venue” since they will not be able to purchase tickets on site. This follows highly attended matches at St. Andrews in 2023 and Cypress Point Club in 2025. A year ago, I wrote about how the Walker Cup might have the best lineup of venues of any golf competition in the world, with Bandon Dunes, Oakmont, Chicago G.C, National Golf Links, Pine Valley, Cypress and Seminole lined up to host in the U.S. between now and 2052. If you're not lucky enough to be able to attend in person this year, Golf Channel will have live coverage in the U.S. for both days.
|
Even at the highest level of professional golf, traditional muscleback long irons are a rarity. In the early 2000s, pros were still using one iron model through the bag, which meant the long irons were unforgiving blades in many cases. The philosophy began to change around 2010, as blended sets (using more than one model) surged in popularity. In most cases, that meant replacing a blade 3- or 4-iron with a slightly more forgiving cavity-back or hollow-body model. Today, more than 60 percent of tour pros have a blended set—and it's even more commonplace at the recreational level.
This brings us to Chris Gotterup, who was one of the few remaining holdouts still wielding a blade 4-iron (Bridgestone 220 MB) on tour. That recently changed at the BMW Championship when he inserted a prototype Bridgestone B-Forged 100CB 4-iron. The cavity-back model gives Gotterup a bit more heel-toe forgiveness, which is a nice-to-have on Sundays when the pressure cranks up. The B-Forged is already available for pre-order in Asia, so there's a chance Gotterup's newest addition will make its way to the States.
|
U.S. Solheim Cup captain Angela Stanford and LPGA player Angel Yin have a tough decision to make about the golfer’s prospects for the Netherlands in two weeks. Yin played her first tournament in two months at the FM Championship this week, coming off an undisclosed illness, and her play was understandably rough. She opened with an 81 and then bounced back a bit with a 76 on Friday, but was still last in the field through 36 holes. After a 35-pound weight loss due to her ailment, Yin, 27, has no more chances to prove her golf fitness before the Solheim, and a call has to be made on a player who automatically made the team at No. 2. Yin is a no-brainer for the squad when healthy, but seems like a problematic work around if she’s on the team trying to win in Europe for the first time since 2015. Meantime, European captain Anna Nordqvist shot 68 on Friday to make the cut and should get a proper farewell on Sunday in what the 39-year-old says will be her final competitive tournament.
|
|
|
This USGA junior development program is four years ahead of schedule. Here's why |
|
|
|
Top fitness trainers: 3 pairs of workout shoes women golfers should consider in the gym |
|
|
|
How to change your driver without changing drivers |
|
|
|
|
