The photos, as of Wednesday, continue to be unnecessary on the scoreboard, and for that, you imagine Ryan Gerard is grateful, though it at least makes you wonder:
How exactly? WILL you draw a swing that “looks like Daniel Berger and Jon Rahm had a falling aneurysm?”
Poor Gerard. Talking to Golf Digest’s Luke Kerr-Dineen in 2023, he said he heard this about his movement. But he doesn’t exactly I don’t agree either.
In consecutive sentences Wednesday, Gerard offered these assessments:
“Yeah, I don’t watch my move much on video.”
“I know it’s not the most visually appealing thing in the world.”
You know exactly where this is going, of course. You’ve heard the cliche. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t mess with success. And so on. But all that goes out the window when Rory McIlroy’s on your left and By Adam Scott on your right. Gerard knows all this better than most. Wednesday, before this week A well-known classiche talked about it all, and since his thinking, along with his swing, has gotten him to where he is, it’s probably worth a read.
Oh, and below is an online video of Gerard’s swing.
“I think it’s just one of those things,” Gerard said, “that you feel comfortable being yourself and you feel comfortable working. Growing up, there were people who were like, you’ve got to change, you’ve got to change. I just always did it the way I felt most comfortable and I felt like I could hit the ball off the center of the face. …
“When you’re moving up the ranks, you’re basically doing whatever you can to find an edge, to find a shot here or a shot there. The way my swing works is very consistent for me. It might not be for other people, but for me, I feel like I can repeat the same swing a lot and hit the ball in the center of the face that has brought me a lot of success.
“There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when you get to the PGA Tour. It’s about fine tuning. It’s about continuing to improve, believing in what got you here, because if you start reinventing the wheel and making wholesale changes, it can lead down a rabbit hole of lack of confidence and bad results, and then you’re going to have a hard time putting it together and making something difficult.”
Now, it should never fix? If you never looking for inspiration? No, of course not. And Gerard speaks from a much better place than, say, the 14-handicapper who is writing this article.
But the middle of the club face is all you want.
It is also easy to draw.
However, to end things here, let’s let Gerard continue. On Wednesday, he had some other common thoughts.
Gerard in the fight
“I don’t think there’s an easy road in this profession. You have to earn every single step. I feel like that’s something that I was raised by my parents and it’s been instilled in my DNA through coaches, college coaches and teammates in a way. If you want to compete with those guys, you’re going to have to want it just as bad, if not more, and be willing to put in the effort.
“I think I’m going to leave junior golf, working hard, trying to get into college, going to college, being the smallest fish in a big pond, figuring out how to hit the tougher courses, learning to be a more complete individual on and off the golf course, and then going pro, starting from scratch, at the lowest level, working at every level, going through every level, getting the experience of success, on the PGA Tour, it just teaches you resilience, it teaches you a lot of preparation and time management skills.
“But you’ve got to love him because if you don’t, there’s a million other guys sitting at home this week not playing who love him just as bad if not more, and they’d trade anything to be where I am now.
“If I’m not willing to work, someone else will. There’s a limited amount of work here for a reason, and someone will come and take mine.”
Gerard for using boot monitors
“I think TrackMan is a great tool. You can use it to set golf clubs. You can use it to make sure your numbers are going where they’re supposed to. Sometimes it’ll even tell you if a club is broken, like if you cracked a driver’s face.
“I’m a very feel-oriented player. I feel like I try to hit shots. I don’t try and play math. TrackMan, obviously I have one, but I use it in a way that’s basically conducive to me hitting a number or hitting a golf shot, and then I’d go look at it for distance or height or something if I’m looking in particular.”
Gerard at his level of consciousness – at the age of 26
“I think my parents did a really good job of instilling confidence in me, but also teaching me that you have to work hard and you’re not going to give up.
“I played a lot of college golf at UNC with a lot of really good players, and I came into my freshman year being almost unreasonable and they kicked my ass. Ben Griffin for about nine consecutive months.
“I think those things teach you that there’s a lot of really good players here, and you’re not going to be able to just waltz in and take over. There are some guys that have that talent and that ability and kind of come off the page, but I’ve never been one of those guys. By high school or leaving college, I was one of those guys, but it took me a while to get there.
“I think it comes from having to work hard and putting in a lot of hours and talking to a lot of people, trying to figure out how I can get better, talking to the college coaches — Coach (Roy) Williams has been great, Carolina’s basketball coach. Guys like that who have a lot of experience and I have a lot of respect for, they’ve given a lot of good advice to stay, but also to remember a lot about myself.
“Being true to yourself isn’t necessarily just on the golf course. It’s off the golf course as well. Trying to make sure you understand where you’re coming from and you want to continue on the path you’re on.
“I think there are a lot of people who have helped along the way.”
;)
