The PGA Tour must make rule change after Ryan Gerard incident on day three of the Tour Championship

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Ryan Gerard is one stroke adrift of the leader, Viktor Hovland, heading into the final round of the Tour Championship.

Gerard still only has one PGA Tour win to his name – the Barracuda Championship in July 2025.

The 27-year-old had a great chance to win The Memorial Tournament earlier this year, but he lost out to J.T. Poston in a playoff.

Now Ryan Gerard has another shot at winning a huge tournament on Sunday at the Tour Championship.

Photo by George Walker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Gerard has been let down by making really sloppy mistakes when in contention this season, so he’ll be desperate to keep the bogeys off his card on Sunday at East Lake.

With just one stroke separating him and Hovland, it really is anyone’s game. However, it could be argued that Gerard is lucky to be just one back from the Norwegian.

PGA Tour must make rule change after Ryan Gerard incident at the Tour Championship

Gerard received a huge slice of luck on Saturday at East Lake.

He left his approach into the 17th hole short and right of the green.

Gerard’s ball found a horrific lie on the bank of the green-side bunker. However, his ball was embedded, meaning that he was entitled to a free drop.

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That’s fair in itself, but it was the nature of the drop which caused such controversy.

The rules allow players to drop their ball within the distance of a club length from where it came to rest.

Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images

This meant that Gerard was able to move his ball from a severe side-slope in thick rough up onto a flat surface in the semi-rough.

He eventually got up and down for a par when it would have been nigh-on impossible to do so if he dropped his ball right next to the original spot that it came to rest.

PGA Tour must change embedded ball rule

The PGA Tour should make a simple rule change. When a player’s ball ends up in an embedded lie, they have to drop or place it right next to the point where it came to rest.

It’s just simple common sense and many golf fans agree.

“Golf has the dumbest rules. Hit a nice drive in the middle of the fairway and land on a divot, ‘sorry, no relief, hit it as it lies’. I understand the ball was embedded, but he should have to replace the ball in a similar lie,“ one fan exclaimed.

Another fan said: “Yes, a change to that rule would be good – drop at the nearest point of relief.“

The comments kept coming, with fans stating, “I know it’s within the rules, but how do you live with yourself. There’s zero chance he wins tomorrow,“ and, “This needs to change. You should have to drop within 30cm not two meters and in a beautiful lie.“

Another fan moaned: “Madness, while a lad got a 2 shot penalty last week on DP world tour for kicking a divot out his way. Gerard hit a poor drive, poorer second, gets plugged, deservingly so, and then gets free relief for that and gets up and down to save par from a great lie and break.“