The latest PGA Tour tournament is the Cognizant Classic, being held in Palm Beach, Florida. It followed the Genesis Invitational, with the biggest story being Scheffler's cut streak. The leader in the first round is Austin Smotherman, but the story of the first round was what happened with Ryan Gerard. Gerard was teeing off and appeared to hit a bird right as he hit the ball. The incident made its way around the internet and has golf fans reminiscing about Randy Johnson's incident in baseball.
In the video that's making its way around Golf Twitter, Gerard launches an iron off the tee that appears to clip a bird that happens to be flying by at that exact moment. The moment instantly brought to mind Randy Johnson hitting a seagull while pitching. It was terrible timing on the bird's part. However, golf analyst Smylie Kaufman confirmed the bird was alive.
Thanks to Gerard's hot start to 2026, where he finished as runner-up at both the Sony Open and the American Express, and a pretty weak field at the Cog, the 26-year-old was one of the tournament's betting favorites. However, the circumstances that occurred with him and the bird were unbelievable.
When Gerard was 15 months old, his father, Bob, who played collegiately at Florida Atlantic University and dabbled in mini-tour golf, gifted him his first putter, a small, Newport 2-style blade made for kids. He barely put it down, and it was destiny from there with him and the game of golf. He has a chance to be a breakout star on the PGA Tour, and after what happened at the Cognizant Classic, people are only going to be paying more attention to him.
Gerard won just once in college at North Carolina, but he was runner-up on four occasions. He was twice an All-American, ranks fourth in career scoring average (71.65), and was the only Tar Heel with at least five rounds of 65 or better until David Ford came along.
Most attention has been on another PGA Tour newcomer, Chris Gotterup, especially after the start of the year, but after a moment like this, Gerard will start getting more attention because the internet loves these things.
