The conversation at the Cognizant Classic shifted to a bird’s life when Ryan Gerard hit his tee shot on the par-3 7th. His ball wasn’t in the air for long when it clipped a passing bird, and everyone wondered whether the two had actually made contact. Someone needed to address the matter, and it was NBC reporter Smylie Kaufman who felt compelled to issue an official update.

Kaufman confirmed on X that the bird had survived. He describes its last-second evasion as more of an athletic move than a lucky escape. As per the reporter, the bird had pulled off a sharp directional change mid-flight, narrowly avoiding the ball, and walked away with nothing more than possibly a lost feather.

The slow-motion footage completely backed Kaufman’s reporting. Gerard’s ball had actually sailed left of the bird, and what most viewers mistook for impact was the grass from his divot flying through the frame at exactly the wrong moment.

In 2001, during a spring training incident, Randy Johnson’s fastball struck and disintegrated a bird on its way to the plate. People were comparing the two, as Gerard’s clip looked almost identical at full speed. Gerard did not shy away from the comparison it invited.

“I guess it was my Randy Johnson moment,” he said after the round.

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The incident unfolded as Gerard’s peripheral vision from the address position left him completely unaware of the bird until after impact. However, the shot still found the green about 35 feet from the cup, and Gerard two-putted for par. Despite the composure on that hole, he struggled elsewhere, finishing the day tied for 100th at +3 through 16 holes, a tough result for someone entering the week as the favorite.

Even Josh Carpenter referenced the Kelly Kraft incident at Hilton Head directly in his reply to Kaufman’s post. That reference carried real weight. At the 2018 RBC Heritage, Kraft’s tee shot on the par-3 14th actually struck a bird mid-flight, sending the ball into the water and costing him a double bogey.

The moment became the highlight from Day 1, but the wildlife chaos did not stop at the seventh.

Funny moments from PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic 2026

The golf world saw Chris Kirk attempting a shot on the sixth hole with a goose making noise nearby as he tried to play his shot from near the water’s edge. Meanwhile, Nico Echavarria was making headlines for an entirely different reason.

A shot from what appeared to be a bear-trap position on hole 17, a par 3 measuring 181 yards, somehow resulted in a par, leaving fans stunned. Ben Goodwin captured the moment perfectly on X, questioning if there is no water in the bear trap, how did Echavarria just chip this out and make par?

The shot tracker confirmed it: ball holed, par, sitting at -7 on the day. Echavarria’s escape was as clean as it was unexpected, and it added another layer to an opening round that had already given fans plenty to discuss.

Ryan Gerard’s near-miss became Day 1’s defining story at PGA National, and Kaufman’s update was the closure everyone needed.