Ryan Gerard hates losing more than he likes winning — and he'll tell you that's a feature, not a bug. Or, as he said to his caddy, JP, recently: “Just, Let Me Be Mad.”
In this episode of The Bag Drop: Untold Stories in Golf, host Matt Considine and co‑host Dr. Kevin Moore (a.k.a. “The Professor”) sit down with Ryan Gerard (PGA Tour professional) to trace how a public course in Raleigh with no standing tee times built one of the tour's most interesting, unfiltered, and fierce competitors. Off a PGA Tour season with back-to-back runner-up finishes and a third at East Lake, Gerard is candid about what actually drives him, what he'd change about American golf, and how he keeps his head on straight when it isn't going his way.
The conversation dives into:
- Why beating a friend seven straight times in a putting contest still wasn't enough — and how being the youngest, smallest kid at Wildwood Green built a competitor who "hates losing more than he likes winning"
- The pitch for a lighted, low-cost par-3 "kids course" in every major North American city, sparked by a course he stumbled onto in Gullane, Scotland
- Ted Scott's line about the best golf happening when expectations and reality line up — and how that explains the jump from irrational confidence to unconditional and real contention
- Why his coach will always protect his self-described “graffiti on a rail car” swing instead of popular wholesale changes or overly smoothing things out
- “Let me be mad”: the 20-second anger reset strategy we caught from Chasing Sunday, and why he thinks frustration is not a negative but one of his superpowers
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Chapters
0:00:00 The cold open: hating losing more than loving winning
0:01:10 Did the Professor win his match at St. Andrews?
0:02:26 How St. Andrews club hosting actually works
0:07:40 Matt's marathon relay confession (and getting kicked off a muni)
0:11:03 Booking Ryan Gerard: the anti-homogenized golfer
0:11:47 Professor's Teaching: North Berwick, the oldest surviving course
0:13:46 Ad Read: Titleist Vokey SM11 wedges
0:15:52 The Atlanta airport run-in with the Professor
0:17:42 The Scottish Open walk-and-talk that started it all
0:18:58 The Gullane kids course and golf's barrier to entry
0:22:23 Bringing Park Grind's lighted par-3 model stateside
0:23:21 Growing up at Wildwood: free reign of a public course
0:28:35 No standing tee times, unlimited junior golf
0:32:00 The pitch: a lighted par-3 course in every metro city
0:34:43 Violin, chess, and badminton club president
0:39:30 Where the competitive gene actually comes from
0:40:27 "I hate losing more than I like winning"
0:44:23 Ted Scott's rule: expectations meeting reality
0:48:15 Small gains, not a swing overhaul
0:54:05 The Mona Lisa and the graffiti on a rail car
0:55:31 Stealing Matt Wolff's bunker shot
1:08:19 "Let me be mad": the mental reset from Chasing Sunday
1:14:22 The Presidents Cup snub and process vs. outcome goals
1:20:34 Is competitive golf actually fun?
1:24:28 Takeaways and the upcoming deep dive series
What is NewClub?
The premier private golf society in the United States. NewClub blends the community and access of a private club with the variety and affordability of public golf. Members enjoy thousands of reserved tee times, competitions, and events at exceptional partner courses across our local chapters, plus signature trips and exclusive perks.
What is The Bag Drop?
Deeply researched audio documentaries that tell the definitive stories behind golf's greatest clubs + weekly conversations with the characters and communities shaping golf today.
