Raleigh’s Ryan Gerard flew to Africa to qualify for the Masters. It paid off

Ryan Gerard is explaining how he earned an invitation to his first Masters, where he’ll tee it up in Thursday’s first round, when out comes a sentence that sounds like a Mad Lib.

“We were in Abu Dhabi at a pro-am party talking to a Bahrain,” Gerard said. “He was saying a bunch of cool countries around that the DP World Tour plays at.”

One of them sounded made up: Mauritius (pronounced “muh-RISH-uhs”).

Perhaps, Gerard thinks now, he heard of Mauritius in a sixth-grade geography class, as he was clicking though all the countries in Africa. But he never truly thought about traveling there until this winter, when it seemed his best shot at playing in the Masters required he fly to Mauritius — a small, island nation located east of other southeast Africa countries Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Madagascar.

You see, in the same way that every former Masters champion earns an invitation from Augusta National, any player in the Top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) at the end of the calendar year gets a spot in the tournament.

In December, Gerard was ranked No. 57.

The former UNC golfer missed the cut at The RSM Classic in Georgia and began looking through the DP Tour schedule for options.

There was a tournament in South Africa during the first week in December, but he missed the entry deadline by an hour. There was another tournament in South Africa the week after, but his friend was getting married. That left just one tournament ... the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, where he would need finish in, at least, the top four to earn enough OWGR points for a Masters invite.

“I was like, ‘Why not? What else am I gonna do?’” Gerard said this week. “I’ll pull the trigger on it and kind of go from there.”

This week, golf fans across America will watch the action in Augusta National and let themselves dream about a world in which they could play the course. They will then consider what they would pay and do for such an opportunity.

Gerard’s answer: Fly nearly 20,000 miles round-trip for merely a shot to play himself into the Masters.

“And he had to finish in the top four,” said Jimmy Cox, Gerard’s golf coach at the Ravenscroft School in Raleigh. “That was a heck of a gamble to go 10,000 miles to finish in the top four.”

He took an Uber ride from Jupiter to Miami, then hopped on a 10-hour red-eye flight to Rome. He had a layover, so naturally he visited the Colosseum and ate some pizza. Then another 10-hour red-eye from Rome to Mauritius.

Also, if you haven’t already: Look up photos of Mauritius. It looks like a tropical paradise. Beautiful greenery. Crystal-clear water. Monkeys running across the golf course fairways. Spectacular views. And Gerard was staying with his caddie (and roommate) JP Burke at a magnificent resort.

“I mean, it wasn’t cheap,” Gerard said. “But at that point, we’re flying halfway across the world. Might as well do it properly.”

It paid off. Though Gerard lost the tournament in a playoff, his second-place finish earned him enough points to jump into the Top 50 (No. 44). Within 24 hours of returning home, an invitation from Augusta National was at his door.

The official reward will come on Thursday, as Gerard begins the first round of his Masters career with a 9:31 a.m. tee time.

“The reason he went is he knew that if he played well, he could get to the Masters,” Gerard’s father, Bob, said. “... That’s your holy grail — to go there, perform well and hopefully win.”

What further marks Gerard’s second-place finish in Mauritius as a crucial point is, well, he’s played phenomenally since then — so well, in fact, that he would’ve qualified for the Masters even without the 20,000-mile trip. In addition to extending an invitation to those in the Top 50 of OWGR points at the end of the year, Augusta National also awards them to those in the Top 50 a week before the Masters begins.

Heading into the Masters, Gerard is No. 29 after a pair of second-place finishes in January and a T-27 at The Players Championship.

Was he playing good because he was in solid form? Or because, well, it’s easier to play knowing you’ll be driving down Magnolia Lane in April regardless?

“I think a little bit of both, right?” Gerard said. “Like when you’re playing good, good things just kind of tend to happen.”

Good things tend to happen, too, when you make the trip.

Watch the first round of the Masters

Amazon Prime: 1-3 pm

ESPN: 3-7:30 pm

Masters Thursday tee times

• 7:40 AM John Keefer, Haotong Li
• 7:50 AM Naoyuki Kataoka, Max Homa, Carlos Ortiz
• 8:02 AM Jose Maria Olazabal, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Aldrich Potgieter
• 8:14 AM Angel Cabrera, Sami Valimaki, Jackson Herrington
• 8:26 AM Charl Schwartzel, Max Greyserman, Ryan Fox
• 8:38 AM Vijay Singh, Matt McCarty, Rasmus Hojgaard
• 8:50 AM Kurt Kitayama, Kristoffer Reitan, Casey Jarvis
• 9:02 AM Bubba Watson, Nicolas Echavarria, Brandon Holtz
• 9:19 AM Cameron Smith, Sam Burns, Jake Knapp
• 9:31 AM Keegan Bradley, Ryan Gerard, Nick Taylor
• 9:43 AM Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry, Jason Day
• 9:55 AM Patrick Reed, Tommy Fleetwood, Akshay Bhatia
• 10:07 AM Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele
• 10:19 AM Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley
• 10:31 AM Rory McIlroy, Cameron Young, Mason Howell
• 10:43 AM Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Alex Noren
• 11:03 AM Samuel Stevens, Sungjae Im
• 11:15 AM Andrew Novak, Tom McKibbin, Brian Campbell
• 11:27 AM Mike Weir, Wyndham Clark, Mateo Pulcini
• 11:39 AM Zach Johnson, Michael Kim, Nicolai Hojgaard
• 11:51 AM Danny Willett, Davis Riley, Ethan Fang
• 12:03 PM Adam Scott, Daniel Berger, Brian Harman
• 12:15 PM Fred Couples, Min Woo Lee, Fifa Laopakdee
• 12:27 PM Sergio Garcia, Aaron Rai, Jacob Bridgeman
• 12:44 PM Harry Hall, Corey Conners, Michael Brennan
• 12:56 PM J.J. Spaun, Maverick McNealy, Tyrrell Hatton
• 1:08 PM Jon Rahm, Chris Gotterup, Ludvig Aberg
• 1:20 PM Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Brooks Koepka
• 1:32 PM Sepp Straka, Ben Griffin, Justin Thomas
• 1:44 PM Scottie Scheffler, Robert MacIntyre, Gary Woodland
• 1:56 PM Harris English, Marco Penge, Si Woo Kim

This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 8:51 AM.