TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 28, 2026

Ryan Gerard

East Lake Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. Ryan, really solid day, put yourself in the lead. How have you taken a liking to East Lake?

RYAN GERARD: Yeah, it's a lot like the golf course that's I kind of grew up playing in North Carolina. Feel very comfortable with the visuals, some of the elevation change, tee shots, and the greens are the same kind of Bermuda that I putt on at home.

I feel really comfortable out here. It's obviously not North Carolina, and there's some really difficult shots. Those zoysia fairways are kind of a bonus when you get the ball teed up.

Solid so far. Just got to keep it rolling.

Q. Right on the Presidents Cup bubble. Thinking about that at all?

RYAN GERARD: It's hard not to think about it a little bit. I think very aware that a good week this week goes a long way to help my chances. I'm playing this week for myself and to try and put up some good scores and hopefully win a trophy at the end of the week.

That would be obviously -- it was a goal kind of as the year progressed, and it's been on the back of the mind for the last few weeks, few months here. Just going to go out there and play good golf, and Sneds is going to decide whatever he thinks is best for the team, and I hope that I can contribute.

Q. You've been close a lot this year, three runner-up. Just curious what your thoughts are about kind of getting over the top yet this year. Also, like Tommy did last year, doing so in the biggest event.

RYAN GERARD: I played a lot of good golf this year. I really only had a chance to win one of those golf tournaments coming down the stretch, at Memorial. Sony, I kind of was making a late charge, and Chris was just playing really good, and Scottie kind of ran away with Amex, and I just dumped it in the water on 17.

I didn't really have a whole lot of chances to win besides Memorial. I think just putting ourself in contention on the weekend is a good start.

I've played a lot of golf tournaments in my life. I've won a few golf tournaments in my life. I feel comfortable that I'm doing the right things, we're executing the right shots, we have the right mentality to go out and kind of close it and kind of be the dog under pressure. Just go out there and enjoy it.

That's kind of what we play for is to have a chance on the back nine coming down the stretch on Sunday, and that's kind of what we prepare for, and we'll be ready.

Q. You'll be okay playing with the lead?

RYAN GERARD: Yeah, absolutely. Love playing with the lead. Way better than playing in last.

Q. What parts of the game feel dialed in this week?

RYAN GERARD: I've done a really good job of getting my distance controls with the shorter irons a little bit better. Last week we were sitting there kind of a little bit flustered about how far the golf ball is going, and so we spent a lot of time on the range this week working on non-full golf shots, kind of 80 percent, 90 percent, hitting different numbers that were less than full with different golf clubs.

I feel really a lot more comfortable taking speed off 8-iron, 9-iron, pitching wedge, gap wedge, whatever it might be, and that's served us well to kind of get more access to some of these hole locations. Obviously some of them you still want to hit a full shot to the center of the green, but just having the extra reps, taking some speed off, and kind of controlling the flight, controlling the spin on some of these shots has been an added bonus.

Q. Have you watched "Chasing Sunday" yet, and if so, what's your reaction?

RYAN GERARD: I skimmed through some of the stuff I said to see how dumb I made myself sound. Hopefully people didn't think I was too stupid. I haven't got a chance to sit down and watch the whole thing. That will be kind of an off-season project.

It's almost like watching your own interviews. You kind of hate the sound of yourself talking after a little while, but I hope people liked it.

Q. What was the experience like for you?

RYAN GERARD: It was fun. A little bit stressful, different, just given that you know that people are listening and watching. You're not going to say anything dumb, but you're just trying to be real and be realistic without kind of being over the top and trying to bring outside material in, just try and be authentic to what the golf shot is, the golf tournament is.

I feel like we kind of struggled maybe early on, kind of not trying to play to the cameras. Then once the tournament started, it felt like we locked in pretty well. I would say it's definitely a little bit of stress from the standpoint of just being on kind of 24/7, but overall it was a great experience.

It was really cool that Wyndham won while doing it. I think that's really impressive, but also I hope people can watch that and get a really good feel for how the mindset is, how people are thinking, and kind of what it takes to close a tournament out down the stretch.

Q. What have you done about just the entire playoffs atmosphere throughout all the three weeks, especially this week being the second time, second year in a row that anyone who wins is also the FedExCup champion?

RYAN GERARD: Yeah, I think the playoffs, they're really cool because every week it kind of just the field gets smaller. That means you made it to the next tournament.

The atmosphere has been great. The only thing I remember from Memphis is that it was really, really hot. Then last week there were a lot of people, and this week everyone's been really, really supportive and positive. It's been good crowds.

The no starting strokes, the no FedExCup points, staggered start, all that stuff being different, it just feels like a normal golf tournament. There's no game within the game. You're just playing like it's any other golf tournament, and you're going out there and trying to execute and play good golf and kind of count them up at the end.