Not yet the Lees but the Ruffels another golfing family success

Gabi and Mum Anna Maria Fernandez – during one of her US Amateur Championships – image USGA

The sibling combination of Min Woo and Minjee Lee is a much talked about commodity in Australian golf and rightfully so, but the Ruffels family is yet another sporting family capturing headlines.

As I was leaving my hotel in Sydney this morning to head out to the Australian Golf Club I ran into the father of both Gabi and Ryan Ruffels, Ray.

Many will know the name Ray Ruffels as a result of his success as a tennis player during the late 60’s and early 70’s where on three occasions he reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and in 1977 teamed with Allan Stone to win the Australian Doubles title

Ray was in Sydney to see his daughter Gabriela (Gabi) compete in the Australian Open Golf Championship where she was inside the top ten heading into today’s final round.

Gabi, a winner and finalist at the US Amateur Championship in 2019 and 2020 (the first Australian to do so) before turning pro in 2001, earned the right to play the LPGA Tour in 2024 by topping the Epson Tour Order of Merit this year where she won three titles.

Gabi’s two-year older brother, Ryan, is, as yet, struggling to reach the heights that his amateur career suggested it might, playing on secondary tours in the main as he fought to get to the holy grail of professional golf, the PGA Tour.

Having said that, Ryan Ruffels will next week try and gain access to the lucrative LIV Golf Series via their recently introduced Liv Promotions Qualifying series where three spots are available on next year’s schedule.

Ryan had a substantial amateur career before turning professional in 2016, winning the Australian Boys Amateur Championship and the Callaway World Junior Championship and representing Australia in the 2014 Eisenhower Trophy. He was perhaps a little unlucky not to have won the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in 2015 when a typhoon washed out the last day in Hong Kong when one off the lead.

Time will tell if their respective heights get anywhere near the amazing success of the Lee family but the sporting prowess of not only Gabi, Ryan, Ray, and the sibling’s mother, Anna Maria Fernandez, herself a winner of five WTA titles, is another great story in the Australian sporting landscape.

Ryan Ruffels seen here with Cameron Davis at the 2015 Asia Pacific Amateur where both finished tied for 2nd