Gabi Ruffels is the LPGA Tour's unrookie Rookie. By rights she should be pretty raw, given it’s only eight years since she started playing golf with any form of commitment and just six years since she enrolled at the University of Southern California on a golf scholarship. But, no, she’s not raw. At all.
A lot has happened in that short time, most of it unexpected by others. But this is a player with her head firmly screwed on, her feet firmly on the ground and her eyes not on the prize but the process. A player who seemingly came from nowhere yet has met challenges at every level of her development and used them as learning opportunities to springboard to the next level. And then repeated that. Learn, improve, leap, learn, improve, leap.
As she starts the 2024 LPGA season, it’s the same thing. No definite goals for her as such, just the desire to keep getting better.
“I’ll definitely focus on one step at a time and just raising my standard,” Gabi said on the eve of her official debut event, the LPGA Drive On Championship in late January. “I feel like everything takes care of itself, so I haven’t really set any distinct goals. I just enjoy the process. Things come from that, and then you adjust.”
There were goals very early on. Well, ambitions anyway. In 2017, aged 17 and in her second year in the Victorian State Team, her profile for a story published in Golf Victoria magazine that year listed them as “go to college, get a degree and play college golf, and then play on the LPGA Tour”.
These seemed keen but maybe lofty for someone who’d played Junior Pennant only two years earlier off a substantial handicap and lost every match. And yet, here we are, she has achieved all of them, almost without blinking an eye.
One of the intriguing elements of Gabi’s path is that it’s been circuitous, changing midway from a promising tennis career, at 12 years old the No.1 ranked junior in Australia, to a more-or-less novice golfer at 15.
We say more-or-less because she first hit a golf ball around six or seven years old (she can’t quite remember), around the same time she was handed a tennis racquet and ball by her former tennis professional parents Anna Maria (nee Fernandez) and Ray. She liked the tennis, hated the golf.
“I would split a half hour lesson with my brother Ryan, maybe twice a year, with Brian Schippel. My mum says it was really hard to get me out to play because I did not like it at all. But she’d always say, you never know when you might want to use it in the future and it’s good to get the fundamentals.”
Brother Ryan, two years older, took to the game and pursued it with considerable vigour and talent, turning professional at 18. Gabi followed him to join Victoria Golf Club at 11, but was still more than half-baked about it, barely playing. Until she lost her passion for tennis at nearly 15, that is, and found it where she didn’t expect – in golf.
After that Junior Pennant season and still just months into regular golf, Gabi took her first ‘leap’. Learning what matchplay needed, she practised hard, reduced her handicap close to scratch and in 2016 became a member not just of the state and national teams but played her first season of Melbourne Metropolitan Pennant for Victoria GC.
The club’s Division 1 team included some of the best amateurs in the state, such as the ageless Sue Wooster and fellow state squad members Olivia Kline, Kono Matsumoto and Stephanie Bunque, now a pro herself. The level of her teammates’ play inspired her further and Gabi won five out of six matches in a season which saw Victoria GC take home the flag for the first time in 22 years.
The following year, 2017, she was part of the victorious Victorian team which nudged out NSW in the Australian Interstate Team Series. Playing at number one, Gabi nailed a par putt on the 17th to give her team victory.
Team manager Ashley Marshall, then head of high performance for Golf Victoria, recalls Gabi as a hard worker with a strong competitive streak.
“Gabi was very green at that time but always had a great deal of potential,” he said. “She was very driven, always wanting to win, yet very level-headed. She was, and still is, a player who keeps pushing forward and going forward.”
The following year, Gabi enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) on a golf scholarship, following in the footsteps of her mother who was a highly successful collegiate tennis player.
“Mum’s a diehard USC fan and so is the whole family as two of her sisters also went there, so it was my dream school growing up, that’s where I wanted to go,” said Gabi.
Once again, she encountered stiff competition from teammates, players of the ilk of Allisen Corpuz, the 2023 U.S Women’s Open champion, among them.
“That was one of the best things about going to USC, how strong that team was. There were eight really good players and only five could travel (to compete), so right from the get-go we had qualifying almost every week, almost every day. It really pushed me to want to get as good as these girls.”
Again, the hard work paid dividends, Gabi shaving 2.36 shots off her scoring average in the 12 months after she started with the Trojans.
And then, 2019. In her post-collegiate season, she qualified for the U.S Women’s Open, missing the cut, before she suddenly burst forward, winning the time-honoured North & South Women’s Amateur and then the 119th U.S Women’s Amateur, birdieing four of the last five holes to defeat Albane Valenzuela 1up. Valenzuela was No.5 on World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR); Gabi was 52 and the first Australian to claim the Robert Cox Trophy.
At the time, Gabi described the win as ‘a breakthrough’. With four years hindsight, she further noted: “I think I just didn’t know much then, and it was definitely kind of an underdog thing, and it was so special that it happened so quickly. I’d only been playing seriously for four years and I’d only been at USC for a year and a half. I hadn’t been sure what I was going to do in the future, maybe use my business degree, but that moment gave me a bit of confidence to pursue this as a career.”
It not only built her confidence, it also opened doors, providing exemptions and invitations to LPGA and other events the following year, 2020. She finished tied fifth in the Epson Tour Championship and made two cuts from five starts on LPGA, interestingly both of them in majors and both top-15. And she was runner-up in her defence of the US Women’s Amateur, going to 38 holes against phenom Rose Zhang.
“It all added experience and belief that maybe I can compete with the best players in the world when I’m playing my best and made me consider more my decision about turning pro.”
This she did, in February 2021, by now ranked No.6 on WAGR and 212 on Rolex World Rankings. 2021 was a challenging time in the world with the COVID-19 pandemic still swirling but it meant Gabi was able to study online, allowing her travel to play on sponsor exemptions. Aside from five events on the Epson Tour, she also played eight events on the LPGA Tour, making five cuts – going two for two at majors, tied 19 at the ANA Inspiration and tied 33 at the KPMG PGA Championship.
Gabi played two more majors in her rookie Epson Year, 2022, tying 25 at the ANA Inspiration, the third successive year in which she had been in the top 25 at this championship. But it was other matters which made the year memorable.
After a season in which she made 18 out of 20 cuts with modest success, she finished 15th in the Epson Tour Race for the Card, automatically qualifying her for LPGA Q-Series. Unfortunately, due to an oversight, she missed the entry registration deadline and her chances of an LPGA card for 2023 were done and dusted. In true Gabi fashion, she let it hurt for a few days then decided to use it as a positive.
“I was very, very disappointed but what I did well was I got over it pretty quickly. My dad said, if your standard of golf is improving, you’ll get there. Just talking with them, I realized I didn’t exactly ‘kill’ it on the Epson in 2022. I feel like if you can’t win on the Epson Tour, then it’s going to be hard to win on the LPGA, so I still had much to work on.
“It was that mental switch, hey, I need to work hard, improve, and see how I do on Epson in 2023.”
She did well – very, very, well. She burst from the gate, winning three times, the first of them in only her second event, the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic, which she won by two shots, with all four rounds in the 60s.
Only five starts later, she won again, at the Garden City Charity Classic, setting an Epson Tour scoring record of ten-under (62) in the first round and following that up with an eight-under 64 to set a new 36-hole scoring record - clearing the previous one by three shots - and concluded by tying the 54-hole scoring record and winning by four.
Six starts later and she was at it again, this time the Four Winds Invitational, finishing three shots clear of the field.
It was an emphatic answer to the question asked of her after the Q-Series mishap. And it mathematically clinched her spot on the LPGA Tour for 2024, assuring her of a place in the top-10 at season’s end and Category 9 qualification. (‘Battlefield Promotion’, whereby three wins gives automatic promotion, exists on the PGA Tour but was discontinued on LPGA after the 2018 season.)
It also taught Gabi more about herself.
“Missing my card in 2022 was a blessing in disguise. One thing about my second season on Epson was that I learned how to win. I think that’s definitely a thing, it’s not easy,” she said.
Gabi’s spectacular season earned her both Player of the Year and Money List honours, accruing $159,926 from just 13 starts, a particularly fine achievement considering second was Andrea Oon, who won $10,000 less from 19 starts.
On a personal level, too, it was all made more special by having her mum on the bag for those three wins. It’s a close unit, the Ruffels family, and one from which both Gabi and Ryan have drawn support.
“I feel like I couldn’t have done it without both my parents,” Gabi said. “They serve different roles. My mum has been particularly hands-on with both my brother and me. She’s pushed us with getting us out there practising. She has a lot of energy and you’ll never catch her just sitting down, she likes to go, go, go!
“She also travels with me a lot and makes my life so much easier. She’s caddied for me a bit over the last couple of years and I’m super, super appreciative. It was so cool having her there for those three wins, I’ll always remember that.
“What I’ve learned from both my parents is the mental side of things and their work ethic, how they went about their daily routines. I pick their brains a lot because I think tennis and golf correlate so much.”
It also seems the only time sibling ‘rivalry’ appears is on the tennis court. Ryan’s YouTube channel recently featured a fun post Ruffels vs Ruffels, Can I Beat My Sister in Tennis? This riveting event took place in early January and attendees included their parents. No, we’re not saying who won.
For 2024, the LPGA has announced its biggest ever schedule. The tour will travel to 15 U.S states and 10 countries, including two multi-events in Asia. Three new events, including the Drive On Championship, appear amongst 33 official events with a total prize fund of more than $US118 million, the highest in LPGA Tour history. It’s part of a wider recognition and appreciation of women’s sport and a sign that sponsors now see women’s golf as worthy of corporate support.
So, where to for Gabi?
She heads into the year with some strong game weapons – a high rate of making cuts, a 2023 Epson scoring average of 69.85 (the lowest) and the money makers, consistency and ball striking.
“I would say consistency is one of my strengths. I also think ball striking is too. I feel like wherever you go, whatever course, whatever grass, whatever conditions, you need those.”
And her personal strengths, aside from grit and perseverance?
“I feel like I’m a calm person. My dad’s very big on not getting too high or too low. He’s instilled that in me.”
She could have extra help in that, too, with the addition of 35-year-plus caddie John Killeen on the bag, initially a trial for the first few events. Killeen is noted for his calming presence, having assisted such players as Juli Inkster, Meg Mallon, Cristie Kerr, Angela Stanford and, more recently, Lizette Salas.
Team Gabi also consists of coach Craig Chapman, Golf Australia Sport Medicine and Performance manager Luke Mackey, her manager and her parents. And she also has support from Stacey Peters, Female Pathway Manager at Golf Australia.
“I think Gabi’s going to do really well and have a smooth transition. That last year put her in good stead and she definitely knows how to win. She’s had opportunities to play LPGA before, she’s played in majors, so I don’t feel the transition is going to be difficult for her.
And I would not be surprised if she won this year. That might sound a bit crazy but I really do think she can,” Peters said.
Maybe not that crazy; after all, Gabi’s defied odds before. And Karen Lunn, CEO of WPGA Tour Australasia, who knows a thing or two about professional golf, agrees.
“Gabi is an extraordinary talent. It really is incredible to think that she has only played golf for a relatively short amount of time. She knows now that she has the game to contend at the highest level and there is no doubt in my mind that she will be a regular contender on the LPGA Tour in 2024.”
And Gabi herself?
“It’s all been a bit of a blur, I guess. I look back and think, wow, that’s pretty good but it’s still always going back to that one step at a time. I feel all those results in the last seven years or so are just experience being added and enjoying it... And that’s how I want to keep progressing.
“Golf is something that I just really, really enjoy. I just love the atmosphere of it, taking a walk down some of the beautiful places we get to go. Sometimes I just pinch myself and think, wow, I’m so lucky to be doing this.”
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