{"id":492718,"date":"2026-02-27T01:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/492718\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T01:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T01:52:08","slug":"pga-tour-golfer-ryan-gerard-hits-bird-with-tee-shot-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/492718\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Tour golfer Ryan Gerard hits bird with tee shot in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A PGA Tour golfer went from hunting birdies to hitting birds.<\/p>\n<p>During Thursday\u2019s first round of the Cognizant Classic at the famed <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/25\/betting\/cognizant-classic-in-the-palm-beaches-predictions-pga-tour-odds-picks-and-best-bets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens<\/a>, Fla., Ryan Gerard accidentally drilled a bird with one of his golf balls.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe California Post is here. Sign up for Morning Report.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the perfect blend of news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The wild scene unfolded on the par-3 seventh, after the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/05\/15\/sports\/pga-championship-full-of-unlikely-leaders-and-drama-in-first-round\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PGA Tour star unleashed one of his irons<\/a> in an attempt to get on a green that was a little over 200 yards out.<\/p>\n<p>But as the ball climbed through the air, video replays showed it collided with a bird in mid-flight, sending feathers flying.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38615248\" width=\"734\" height=\"490\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ryan-gerard-united-states-plays-122278112.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Gerard playing his shot from the seventh tee during the Cognizant Classic 2026.\" class=\"wp-image-38615248\" style=\"width:734px;height:auto;aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\"  \/>On the par-3 seventh hole at the Cognizant Classic in Florida Thursday, Ryan Gerard hit a bird with one of his shots. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Somehow, the ball turned up just a few feet from the hole \u2014 and perhaps even more unbelievably, the flying creature reportedly didn\u2019t lose its life.<\/p>\n<p>According to Golf Channel\u2019s Smylie Kaufman, \u201cThe bird is ALIVE and well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38615249\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ryan-gerard-united-states-looks-122278136.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Gerard at the Cognizant Classic 2026.\" class=\"wp-image-38615249\"  \/>Gerard was one of the favorites to win the Cognizant Classic in Florida this weekend. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing told the bird pulled a 360 madden juke on the golf ball,\u201d Kaufman <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SmylieKaufman10\/status\/2027113389168685143\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reported from the course<\/a>. \u201cMay have lost a feather but the young fella is flying free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for how Gerard, one of the tournament\u2019s favorites, ended up, he finished the hole with a par after two-putting \u2014 and he\u2019s done no further harm to birds on the course. <\/p>\n<p>At least, not yet.<\/p>\n<p>Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n<p>California Post News: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheCaliforniaPost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@CaliforniaPost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TikTok<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">X<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@thecaliforniapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Vb6a2IV1NCrL6q2AWq0E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">WhatsApp<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/linkedin.com\/company\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a><br \/>California Post Sports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/capostsports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/capostsports\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@capostsports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TikTok<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@CaliforniaPostSports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/capostsports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">X<\/a><br \/>California Post  <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/californiapost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Opinion<\/a> <br \/>California Post Newsletters: <a href=\"https:\/\/email.nypost.com\/#california-post\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up here!<\/a><br \/>California Post App: <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/california-post\/id6751343487\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Download here!<\/a><br \/>Home delivery: <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.californiapost.com\/defaultCAP\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up here!<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/california-post\/id6751343487\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><br \/><\/a>Page Six Hollywood: <a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/hollywood-signup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up here!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A PGA Tour golfer went from hunting birdies to hitting birds. During Thursday\u2019s first round of the Cognizant&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[2356,427,3332,99],"class_list":["post-492718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-california","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}