Where would you go to earn a start in the Masters? For most players, the answer is simple: anywhere. For Ryan Gerard, it\u2019s 10,000 miles from home. This week, the world No. 56 tees it up at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, chasing a top-50 ranking and the dream that comes with it\u2014a spot at Augusta in April.<\/p>\n
I spoke with Gerard a few days before he began the 27-hour journey to Mauritius. The itinerary was brutal: a 10-hour flight to Rome, nearly eight hours on the ground, then another 10-hour flight to the island. But with a chance to play his way into the Masters, it felt like a minor inconvenience.<\/p>\n
Just a few weeks earlier, Mauritius wasn\u2019t even on Gerard\u2019s radar. That changed when he missed the cut at the RSM Classic (getting hit by one of his pro-am partners with a drive didn’t help), the final PGA Tour event of 2025\u2014and potentially his last opportunity to gather the points needed to move inside the top 50.<\/p>\n
Gerard\u2019s path to Augusta shifted overseas because of a win earlier this season at the Barracuda Championship (RIP). As a co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour, that victory opened the door to European starts\u2014and, more importantly, to OWGR points still available late in the year for players chasing Masters invitations.<\/p>\n
That Friday afternoon in Mississippi, Gerard began scanning the DP World Tour schedule, hoping to register for the no-cut Nedbank Open in South Africa. It would have been a perfect opportunity. Instead, he learned a small but costly difference: European Tour commitment deadlines fall on Thursdays, not Fridays like the PGA Tour. The Nedbank wasn’t an option. <\/p>\n
That left one final option in 2025. One tournament. One long flight. And one remaining chance to chase Augusta.<\/p>\n
The Mauritius Open, played on a small island in the Indian Ocean more than 1,000 miles off the east coast of Africa, became Gerard\u2019s Masters lifeline.<\/p>\n
Gerard\u2019s agent reached out to Christo Lamprecht\u2019s agent to get feedback after Lamprecht played the event the previous year. When the response came back positive\u2014about both the tournament and the country\u2014all systems were go.<\/p>\n
The event has been played since 2015 and boasts a strong list of past winners, including Louis Oosthuizen, Rasmus H\u00f8jgaard, and American Kurt Kitayama. But this week, for Gerard, it represents something far bigger than a trophy.<\/p>\n
While Gerard believes he\u2019ll eventually play his way into the Masters, locking up a spot before the end of the season came with benefits he felt were too good to pass up. \u201cYou can get some early access to the course and plan your schedule, so you\u2019re as prepared as possible for April,\u201d Gerard told me.<\/p>\n