Circuitous journey sees Ryan Gerard qualify for RBC Heritage via Aon Swing 5

Ryan Gerard played collegiate golf at North Carolina, where he would often come across legendary Tar Heel basketball coach Roy Williams on campus – sometimes at the driving range.

Williams’ range sessions skewed later in the day, sometimes well into the twilight hours. It served as intrinsic motivation for Gerard and his teammates to grind as well.

“He will compete with you to see how bad you really want it,” Gerard recounted last fall. “He’d try to out-wait us to see if he would be the last guy there that night, and we wouldn’t let him for the most part.”

That mindset has served Gerard well in his early years in professional golf. The North Carolina native has qualified to compete at this week’s RBC Heritage, the season’s fifth of eight Signature Events, via the Aon Swing 5. It will mark Gerard’s competitive debut at the PGA TOUR’s longtime South Carolina stop, qualifying via the Aon Swing 5 on the strength of a runner-up finish at the Valero Texas Open two weeks ago. He also finished ninth at the Texas Children’s Houston Open the week prior to the Valero, a strong Texas two-step that has vaulted him to No. 34 on the FedExCup standings.

Gerard, 25, has taken a circuitous route to this point. Less than a year after turning pro from North Carolina in the summer of 2022 and finishing fifth on the PGA TOUR Canada’s (now PGA TOUR Americas) season-long Fortinet Cup standings that summer, he earned PGA TOUR Special Temporary Membership largely on the strength of a fourth-place finish at the 2023 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches – into which he Monday qualified. Gerard was on the fast track, but he underwent the typical learning curve of a first-year TOUR pro and failed to retain membership for 2024. He returned to the Korn Ferry Tour, reframed his mindset after an early-season lull and earned his 2025 TOUR card at No. 12 on the 2024 Korn Ferry Tour season-long standings – his campaign highlighted by a win at the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by TD SYNNEX in Greenville, South Carolina, just a few hours’ drive from Hilton Head Island, where he’ll compete this week at venerable Harbour Town Golf Links.

It's fitting that Gerard’s breakthrough Korn Ferry Tour win came in the Carolinas, just as it’s fitting he’ll play his first Signature Event of 2025 in the Carolinas. Gerard, whose dad Bob played collegiately at Florida Atlantic and dabbled in professional golf after graduating, was seemingly born to play golf. He received his first set of clubs at age 2, and when he was 5 or 6, his family moved to a house adjacent to the 15th hole at Wildwood Green Golf Club, a public course in Raleigh, North Carolina. They’d sneak onto the hole in the mornings before play would reach No. 15; the elder Gerard would throw hula hoops in 20-yard increments (think 100, 120, 140, 160 yards) to work on distance control. Gerard considers himself a hardcore golf fan; earlier this year at THE PLAYERS Championship, he easily recounted a series of memorable moments from the event, including Ken Duke’s third-round 65 in 2016 which he regards as one of the greatest rounds ever played in TOUR competition.

Now Gerard is competing on TOUR against several players whom he admires greatly. It’s been a whirlwind arc in less than three years since turning pro, but after needing to regain his place on TOUR via the Korn Ferry Tour, the opportunity is far from lost on him.

“When you see Sungjae (Im) walk past you at a PGA TOUR event, you’re like ‘Oh my god, dude, that guy flushes it,’” Gerard said. “For the most part, everyone has been super respectful and kind to me. Having that mutual respect means a lot.”

It’s a star-studded field at this week’s RBC Heritage, and Gerard will be a part of it.

Fifteen players qualified for the RBC Heritage via the Aon Next 10 and Aon Swing 5, categories that allow players to qualify for Signature Events despite finishing outside the top 50 on the prior year’s FedExCup standings.

The Aon Next 10 is comprised of the top 10 players on the season-long FedExCup standings into that week’s Signature Event, not otherwise exempt. The Aon Next 10 for the RBC Heritage includes J.J. Spaun, Justin Rose, Michael Kim, Maverick McNealy, Nick Taylor, Lucas Glover, Min Woo Lee, Harris English, Daniel Berger and Joe Highsmith.

The Aon Swing 5 for the RBC Heritage is comprised of the top five FedExCup points earners across the Valspar Championship, Texas Children’s Houston Open, Puerto Rico Open and Valero Texas Open, not otherwise exempt. The Aon Swing 5 for the RBC Heritage includes Gerard, Karl Vilips, Gary Woodland, Ryo Hisatsune and Sami Valimaki.

Vilips earned his spot on the strength of a victory at the Puerto Rico Open, which came in just his third start as a PGA TOUR member. Woodland shared second at the Texas Children’s Houston Open; Hisatsune finished fourth at the Valspar Championship and fifth at the Valero Texas Open. Valimaki finished fourth in Houston and T12 at the Valero.