If Ryan Gerard Wins The PGA Championship, He Has This Lucky Turtle To Thank
David Cannon. Getty Images.Quail Hollow clearly heard all the shit that Tour players were talking this week and decided to fight back a bit today. Rory got back to the clubhouse at 3 over today. Xander was 2 over. Phil was +8. There's a good chance you'll have to end up Googling the top 10 on the leaderboard come Sunday.
Currently at the top of the leaderboard is Ryan Gerard. A good ol' boy from Raleigh who just earned his PGA Tour Card this year. He started to go absolutely ballistic at the turn. Birdied 10, birdied 11, birdied 12, birdied 13. And there he was on 14. A short, 311-yard par 4. He let it rip 307 off the tee, and had a little chip to give him a chance at 5 birdies in a row. But that's where the heater almost went ice cold.
That's a shitty break. No two ways about it. You think you hit the perfect shot, and all of a sudden the greenskeeper shoves it right back up your ass. The ball rolls off the green, but it nestles right up next to a friendly little turtle. Who knows how the rest of that round goes if he didn't catch a little turtle luck. I guess we'll never get a chance to find out. Because Ryan Gerard was able to get up and down from there for par, and then eagled 15. Just picking up a quick 6 shots in 6 holes playing in his first PGA Championship.
Now it's worth noting that he bogey'd 17 and 18. So maybe the turtle luck wore off pretty quickly. But if Ryan Gerard somehow finds a way to hang on and win the PGA Championship this year, he needs to find that turtle and bring it home with him. Either that turtle had crazy odds on Ryan Gerard's opening round, or he's some guardian tortoise sent from above.