Why recent PGA Tour winner did not want to play the last hole of the tournament despite leading

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The PGA Tour was in California last week for the Barracuda Championship.

All the talk in the build-up to the Barracuda Championship centred around Grant Horvat’s decision to reject an invite to play the PGA Tour event at Tahoe Mountain Club in Truckee, California.

The attention of the golfing world was 4,500 miles away across the other side of The Atlantic for The Open Championship.

However, the Barracuda Championship represented a real opportunity for PGA Tour players further down the rankings to make names for themselves.

And one man in particular did exactly that, despite not going out in a blaze of glory like he wanted to.

Ryan Gerard didn’t want to play the last hole of the Barracuda Championship

25-year-old Ryan Gerard earned his maiden PGA Tour win at the Barracuda Championship on Sunday.

In a thrilling climax to the modified Stableford event, Gerard pipped Erik van Rooyen to the title by three points in the end.

However, he had something quite amazing planned for the 18th hole, if he had a bigger lead than the one he held over Van Rooyen.

Speaking to SIRIUSXM PGA TOUR Radio, Gerard made an incredible admission about something that he really wanted to do.

“The modified Stableford format is a bit of a rollercoaster because birdies are worth way more than bogeys, because you want to stay aggressive. But when you’re playing with the lead, you’re trying to hit quality shots to the right spots. It’s a fine line between picking up dumb mistakes by going after flags and playing off to the side and trying to make other people come and get you.

“My caddie and I were trying to hit quality shots to our targets and see what the best would happen. As we go down towards the end, we had a big cushion until EVR (Erik van Rooyen) decided to roll one in for eagle on 15, but at that point we were just trying to hit quality shots to our conservative targets.

“Made it a little bit more interesting than I would have liked in the end. I was a little bit disappointed that I didn’t have a big enough lead going into 18 because I would have just scooped it, walked off and taken the minus three, and walked into the clubhouse. That would have been the way to cap it because I know this event is probably in its last year.

“I was trying to go out in style but Erik made birdie on the last so I had to actually get it in the hole.”

In the modified Stableford format, the worst anyone can do on a hole is -3 points. So he could have walked in and taken the minus three, had his lead been an unassailable one.

That would have been a crazy way to end a golf tournament, and he certainly would have ensured that the Barracuda Championship would be remembered if 2025 ends up being the last year that the event is played.

Ryan Gerard’s career results on the PGA Tour

Gerard has only been out on the PGA Tour for a few seasons.

It was only his 47th event on the PGA Tour last week in Truckee, California, and he got that all important win.

Here is how his career results look to date:

Gerard will be incredibly confident now that he is good enough to win on the PGA Tour.

The next step for him will be to win a stroke-play event because whatever way you look at it, there is undoubtedly a big difference between the two formats.