Ryan Gerard’s caddie is JP Burke, the man now linked to one of the biggest reasons behind Gerard’s rise in form. Gerard, who became a mainstay in the world’s top 50 in 2026, has a support figure with an unusual path into the bag: Burke did not come from a tour-only background, but from a life that started on a golf course and veered first toward basketball and baseball.
That makes him a natural search today for readers trying to figure out who is behind Gerard’s recent run. Burke knew Korn Ferry Tour player Austin Hitt, who had been teammates with Gerard at the University of North Carolina, and the connection deepened when Burke visited the university to see Hitt. Those trips eventually brought him into Gerard’s orbit, and the relationship grew from there.
Burke’s route to the ropes was anything but direct. He worked in finance, software sales and property management before taking up caddying more seriously. Along the way, he occasionally looped for Hitt and also caddied for Walker Lee and Davis Shore, building a quiet résumé that never looked like the usual path into a top-player setup. That backstory matters because Gerard has been described as one of the beneficiaries of Burke’s influence, with the caddie credited as one of the big catalysts for his form.
The fit also helps explain why Gerard’s name stood out when he was a surprise inclusion in the field for the 2025 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open. He chose to play in the DP World Tour event, and the unexpected entry suggested a route into the week that did not look fully predictable from the outside. For Gerard, now a figure whose profile has grown sharply by 2026, Burke is not just a carry bag on the course. He is part of the story of how the golfer got there, even if the specific shot-by-shot role in that breakthrough form remains the piece still left hanging.
