THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY WORKDAY

June 7, 2026

Ryan Gerard

Muirfield Village

Quick Quotes

Q. Obviously not the result that you wanted, but just overall thoughts on the week.

RYAN GERARD: Yeah, really good week of golf. Very difficult golf course. Hit a lot of really, really good shots over the course of 74 holes and however many of 'em were today.

So I feel good about where my game's at. I feel confident in the way that I'm playing and how I handled myself out there. I know there were a lot of people kind of tied for the lead at one point coming down the stretch, and I felt like I stepped up and executed golf shots that I wanted to execute.

Just stings a little bit because I felt like I hit a good -- a couple good shots in the playoff that just -- were on 18 in regulation in the playoff that just didn't quite make it to the top of the hill. Again, just hit in the rough, and you can't hit in the rough out here or you'll get penalized for it.

Q. Talk about the challenge playing extra holes today and then obviously the playoff.

RYAN GERARD: Yeah, I'm tired. I think that's an obvious one. There's a lot of stress out on this golf course. There's not a lot of golf shots that you can kind of breathe. There's a lot of water, a lot of tight shots, a lot of angles, a lot of dicey putts. It just kind of wears on you mentally.

I played late, the last group, the last two days, but then also last week too, so it's just -- I've only been two weeks in a row here, but it feels like it's been kind of a grind. Just a lot of good things this week, just unfortunate that the result wasn't the one that we wanted.

Q. You were pretty good at chess. Did it feel like a chess match out there in terms of this course, like every move matters?

RYAN GERARD: I mean, yeah, but you got to execute. Strategically there's obviously things that you want to do, but at the end of the day, it's an execution test. I know I didn't execute enough to get it done. I hit a lot of good golf shots, I hit a lot of good putts, but you shouldn't let it get to a playoff like that if you're hitting it as good as I did. So we're going to go work on a couple things.

Q. Did you allow yourself to think you had it when you made the putt?

RYAN GERARD: No, no, that never even crossed my mind. I knew where I stood on the leaderboard. I didn't think I had won the golf tournament. That was just a really big putt in the moment and the emotion that kind of came out was like a day of grinding really, really hard and not really seeing anything long go in, and then that was kind of the one that kind of got the lid off the hole.

So yeah, obviously, it was a great putt on 17, but stepped up and executed some good shots on 18 and made a nice putt to force the playoff.

Q. On that putt, was that similar to the one on the second playoff hole?

RYAN GERARD: Yeah, it was a little different. It was probably a couple feet further to the -- or it was probably a foot further and a foot lower. So I had a similar read on it, and I don't know if I just didn't hit it hard enough or it just snapped a little bit more than I thought or maybe some combination of both. But I felt like I made a decent stroke. It just didn't give it enough speed in that moment. Yeah, it wasn't a bad putt, I just didn't hit it high enough or hard enough.

Q. When you have a putt that's similar but different enough that can be challenging, I would think, because you've got that mental, you know, note in your head from the regulation and then it's moved a little bit, so you've got to play it slightly different.

RYAN GERARD: Yeah, I mean, a little bit, yeah. I think you obviously keep track of the shots that you hit and kind of what it means, but every shot is a new opportunity to execute and kind of just refocus and it's another opportunity. It's not the same thing. So while can you draw on past experience and kind of look back at the previous putt, I did look at it like a new putt and I just I didn't hit it hard enough.

Q. Were you able to enjoy at all the atmosphere or -- I mean, I know you guys all live for pressure.

RYAN GERARD: I mean, dude, I love it. This is like my favorite thing to do is being in contention to win a golf tournament. It's one of the hardest things to do, but there's nothing quite like the feeling of just everything kind of feeling a little shaky, but you know deep down that you're going to execute and hit a good shot, and just hitting there and striping it or making a big putt or kind of that feeling of being over the ball and knowing that it's going kind of where you want it to, those are all awesome things and kind of why I love competitive golf to its core.

But I mean, they're great fans, great atmosphere, but at one point there were a lot of guys kind of neck and neck coming down the stretch and that's kind of all you can ask for from a tournament.

Q. Two Tarheel fans battling it out at the end, was that kind of cool?

RYAN GERARD: Yeah, I guess so. I mean, Poston used to sleep on Ben Griffin's couch when he would come hang out sometimes, so I guess a little bit. But, yeah, he's, Poston's an awesome guy, he played amazing, and hat's off to him.