A lot of focus, including my own, has been centered on UNC football and their season-opening win over TCU in Dublin last Saturday. While that was a pretty big event in Tar Heel land, there’s been plenty going on elsewhere too. Most of the other fall college sports are underway, but there are also Heels doing things on the professional level. Over the past couple days, two Tar Heels had notable moments that you may have missed.
In golf, former Tar Heel Ryan Gerard has had a bit of a breakout year on
the PGA Tour. While he didn’t make the winner’s circle in 2026 — although he did win once in 2025 — Gerard finished in the top 15 of a tournament seven out of 26 times. That included a tied-for-ninth finish at the Open Championship — the British Open for those inclined.
However, the most impressive finish of his season probably came this past weekend. At the Tour Championship, which includes only the top 30 players from across the PGA Tour season, Gerard finished in third place. He held a tie for the lead after Friday and Saturday, but ended up getting chased down by the world #1, Scottie Scheffler, on Sunday. However, he still came away with a cool $3.7 million just for that third place finish alone. For the season in total, he ended up earning just over $10 million.
One annoying thing did just happen on Tuesday, though. Gerard was omitted from the USA team for the upcoming Presidents Cup in Illinois. The Presidents Cup is an event that pits 12 American golfers against 12 international golfers — those from anywhere else in the world except Europe, which competes in the Ryder Cup. Gerard was seen as a potential contender to be one of the six “captain’s picks” that round out the US roster, however, he was unfortunately not selected. Fellow Tar Heel Ben Griffin was also among those who likely narrowly missed out.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, former Tar Heel tennis player Reese Brantmeier also ticked off a notable achievement. Brantmeier competed in the 2026 US Open singles’ tournament for the first time in her career. Brantmeier ended up losing to Ukranian player Oleksandra Oliynykova in her opening match, but making a grand slam field for the first time is still a big deal. She also won’t have to sue the NCAA to get the prize money for competing this time around.
In both cases, I don’t doubt that Gerard and Brantmeier wished they would’ve been able to better their result.
