Turns out there’s more to Ryan Gerard than being an expert on travel deals and a player willing to travel halfway around the world to get to the Masters.
Part of his training in becoming a top-25 player in the world includes the violin.
“I played violin for a while growing up, like 10, 15 years,” Gerard revealed during his time with reporters before last week’s WWT Championship. “I think there’s something to understanding the rhythm of a putting stroke, and my feel is pretty attributed to what I hear.
“Being able to have that music background and understanding different kind of tempos, rhythms, sounds, I feel like it’s kind of made my feel as a golfer really sharp,” he continued. “My ears and eyes and everything kind of go together and (I) feel everything in a very distinct way.”
Gerard entered the tournament as one of the favorites to win in Cabo and finished T-8 — the ninth time this season where he found himself inside the top 10.
He’s collected more than $10 million this season, making the cut in 24 out of 28 events and finding himself T-25 or better a career-best 13 times.
“It’s a daunting sport coming out of college, you get out here and it’s just kind of you against the world,” Gerard said last week. “I think just having steppingstones to get towards the top has been really beneficial for me because I’ve been able to learn every year, grow every year, establish good people around me that have helped, but also just become more mature as a person because as a 22-23-year-old.
“I wasn’t ready to be sitting here, and sometimes you’ll play good, sometimes you’ll play bad,” he added. “As you learn more about yourself and as you get better as a golfer, it’s just, it’s nice to be able to kind of keep moving up the ranks.”
Gerard is not in the field at this week’s inaugural Austin Championship, taking off after a gauntlet fall that saw him juggle a PGA Tour and DP World Tour schedules.
