Golfer Ryan Gerard was involved in a dreadful accident during the first round of the Cognizant Classic in Florida on Thursday, accidentally hitting a bird with a tee shot.
The shocking moment happened at the par-three seventh hole. Gerard, the World No. 26, had his head down and eyes fixed on the ball as he began his swing, while the bird started to swoop down onto the course.
Even so, what happened next was desperately unlucky. After Gerard hit his iron shot, the ball clipped the bird and carried on its path, reaching the green and setting up a chance at birdie.
Incredibly though, the bird was apparently ok.
That’s according to analyst Smylie Kaufman, who delivered the good news on his X account.
‘I can report… the bird is ALIVE and well,’ Kaufman wrote. ‘Being told the bird pulled a 360 Madden juke on the golf ball.’
Ryan Gerard hit a bird with a tee shot at the Cognizant Classic on Thursday
Incredibly, it seems that the bird somehow escaped unhurt from the incident in Florida
Kaufman added: ‘May have lost a feather but the young fella is flying free.’
Gerard saved par on the hole but was having a tough day on the course otherwise, closing his first round on two-over par.
Many fans who saw the incident drew inevitable comparisons to Randy Johnson, one of the all-time great Major League Baseball pitchers who killed a bird in a similar incident.
Johnson threw his pitch, a 100mph fastball, in a spring training game when the bird flew into the line of the ball and had no lucky escape.
Johnson had a Hall of Fame career but to many, that incident is what he is best remembered for – despite also being a World Series winner and a 10-time All-Star.
Speaking in 2024, he said: ‘People go, “Hey aren’t you the pitcher that hit the bird?”
‘And I look at ’em and I go, “I played 22 years! And I did a lot more than kill a bird.”
Fortunately for Gerard, and the bird, the American golfer will not be remembered for a similar thing.
