Let Me Be Mad — Ryan Gerard

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, ScotlandTed 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 contentionWhy 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 superpowersConnect with our guest⛳ Ryan Gerard — https://www.pgatour.com/player/59018/ryan-gerard — 🐦 X/Twitter: [https://x.com/golfgerard | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/golfgerard/Community & Partners🐝 NewClub: https://www.newclub.golf🏌️ Titleist: https://www.titleist.com🌐 Golf Blueprint: https://www.golfblueprint.comListen to The Bag Drop🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bag-drop-untold-stories-in-golf/id1430328006🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2xRWtUBJH8RazdLw14oaGH🎧 Web: https://thebagdrop.fm/Connect with Matt & The Professor🎙️ Matt Considine — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/consequential85 | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/consequence18/ | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-considine-103bb21/📚 Dr. Kevin Moore ("The Professor") — 🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/kevcmoore | 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevcmoore | 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-moore-177b30b3/🗣️Contribute to the show! — 📧 email: thebagdrop@newclub.golfChapters0:00:00 The cold open: hating losing more than loving winning0:00:55 Welcome to the Bag Drop0:01:10 Did the Professor win his match at St. Andrews?0:02:26 How St. Andrews club hosting actually works0:07:40 Matt's marathon relay confession (and getting kicked off a muni)0:11:03 Booking Ryan Gerard: the anti-homogenized golfer0:11:47 Professor's Teaching: North Berwick, the oldest surviving course0:13:46 Ad Read: Titleist Vokey SM11 wedges0:15:30 Ryan Gerard joins the show0:15:52 The Atlanta airport run-in with the Professor0:17:42 The Scottish Open walk-and-talk that started it all0:18:58 The Gullane kids course and golf's barrier to entry0:22:23 Bringing Park Grind's lighted par-3 model stateside0:23:21 Growing up at Wildwood: free reign of a public course0:28:35 No standing tee times, unlimited junior golf0:32:00 The pitch: a lighted par-3 course in every metro city0:34:43 Violin, chess, and badminton club president0:39:30 Where the competitive gene actually comes