Ryan Gerard appears to hit bird (!) with tee shot, still manages to hit the green as well
Much was expected from Ryan Gerard at this week's Cognizant Classic. But no one could have ever expected what happened on one of his shots during Thursday's opening round at PGA National.
Thanks to Gerard's hot start to 2026 (runner-up finishes 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 betting favorites. But you could have gotten 1 MILLION-to-1 odds on the set of circumstances surrounding his tee shot on the par-3 seventh.
In a 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. And, yes, sports fans everywhere were having Randy Johnson-seagull flashbacks. Have a look:
Incredible. Our Ts & Ps go out to that bird. Talk about bad timing.
But maybe it made it out alive unlike that poor seagull 25 years ago (Time flies!). After all, how hard could Gerard's golf ball have hit the bird, if it still went 218 yards and onto the green?!
Anyway, just a wild sequence at PGA National. That has to be the most memorable two-putt par of Gerard's career thus far.