How Roy Williams’ text messages helped Ryan Gerard clinch his first PGA Tour win
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Text support from Roy Williams and advice from Ben Griffin guided Gerard's win
- Gerard chose Barracuda over British Open and claimed first PGA Tour victory
- Victory boosts Gerard's FedEx Cup and world ranking toward Tour Championship
One piece of good advice, from a not-unexpected source, put Ryan Gerard in position to win his first PGA Tour event two weeks ago. Another bit of guidance, from a less likely direction, helped put him over the top.
The Ravenscroft and North Carolina product from Raleigh had been overseas for the Scottish Open and was debating whether to come home and play in the Barracuda Championship or head to Northern Ireland and see if he could get into the British Open as an alternate.
Gerard reached out to Ben Griffin, his former UNC teammate in the midst of a breakthrough season on the tour, for guidance. Griffin told him to go to Nevada and play the second-tier event, where he’d be one of the top contenders, rather than roll the dice at Royal Portrush.
Gerard went to Reno and ran away, as his second friend would say, with the whole dadgum thing.
“Roy Williams, he’s been great to me,” Gerard said. “He texts me a lot. Sometimes when I play bad, sometimes when I play good, but I know he’s always rooting for me. He’s been in my corner for years and years and years. He gives me a lot of really good wisdom about, you know, it’s not always about the first time you get there, it’s not always about the second time, it’s about perseverance, trusting yourself, and continue doing what you’re doing because you’re on the right path.
“He’s been great to me. It’s always nice when that message pops up. And he always signs it ‘Coach Roy Williams,’ like I don’t know who it is”
Williams’ pre- and post-retirement UNC fandom has been well documented over the years, particularly in baseball but across the full gamut of Tar Heel sports, and he’s always had a soft spot for the golf team because of his own personal affinity for the sport.
Generations of UNC golfers have hit balls with Williams on the range at Finley, hit balls into his yard of his old house adjoining Chapel Hill Country Club — easily spotted by the UNC and Kansas regalia — and received motivational text messages from the coach.
Gerard gets one every couple of weeks, and he got one from Williams both before and after his Barracuda win, to congratulate him on breaking through on the tour, among the more than 500 he received.
“Even if it’s, hey, you know, keep going, Dean Smith made it to four Final Fours before he won a championship,” Gerard said. “Or hey, man, I’m seeing a lot of great things, I love the way you’re playing. Like just, you know, just do you, trust yourself, stuff like that. He’s been awesome.”
Having taken the counsel of both Griffin and Williams, Gerard came home to Greensboro for the Wyndham Championship a winner, which conveys its own special status in the cloistered world of the tour. He made his first pre-tournament appearance in the media tent, sweating under the hot lights, and even entertained questions from a self-proclaimed PGA Tour communications intern.
“I know you’re probably super nervous here in the media center for the first time leading into a PGA TOUR event,” Griffin said from the front row. “Just wanted to ask if there’s anyone you could, like, credit towards your Barracuda Championship, first PGA TOUR victory?”
“Yeah, I’m actually sweating up here I’m so nervous,” Gerard said. “Maybe it’s 100 degrees outside, but it also might be…”
“It’s very comfortable in here right now,” Griffin interrupted.
“But I’m getting the reflection off your sunglasses into my face,” Gerard said, poking fun of the aviator glasses Griffin wears because of a retinal issue. “So there is someone that told me to play the Barracuda instead of going to The Open Championship and I’d like to credit him a great deal. He’ll remain nameless on account of anonymity and protecting the field and stuff like that.”
Griffin’s caddy, Alex Ritthamel, also asked Gerard about their tradition of pre-tournament steak dinners, with the one who makes more money the previous week picking up the tab. The way Griffin’s been cooking this summer, Ritthamel’s chunk of Griffin’s earnings has occasionally been more than Gerard’s winnings. But not this week.
“Thank you for a couple free meals because you played so well,” Gerard joked.
As this summer comes to a close, it’s a little crazy that three of the top 50 golfers in the world — Griffin (17th), Akshay Bhatia (38th) and Gerard (50th) — all grew up within this area code over a six-year span. Throw in Webb Simpson and Brendon Todd, and Gerard’s win was the ninth on the tour by a Triangle golfer since 2018, and that doesn’t include Gerard briefly leading the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in May.
But with a catch: As Bhatia found out in 2023, winning one of the so-called off-week events — played opposite a major or small-field invitational — that only gets you so far in one important respect. Because Barracuda isn’t a full-field event, Gerard still needs to maintain his FedEx Cup position — currently 29th — and finish in the top 30 to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship if he wants to play the Masters for the first time.
“But it does give you an opportunity to play more events than guys that aren’t in the signature events over the course of the season,” said Gerard, who turns 26 Saturday. “It gives you a little bit of a leg up on trying to get in the signature events in the next year and keep your card and do the things that you need to do as a professional.”
Gerard’s also currently 50th in the Official World Golf Ranking; finishing 2025 in that spot would get him in as well. Those two metrics are likely linked, so if he can finish this season the way he’s going now, he’ll have something to look forward to in April, not that there hasn’t been enough to celebrate so far.
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This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 2:32 PM with the headline "How Roy Williams’ text messages helped Ryan Gerard clinch his first PGA Tour win."
