Ryan Ruffels Makes Strong Return to the PGA Tour at Myrtle Beach Classic
Ryan Ruffels has enjoyed a strong return to the PGA Tour, finishing -5 through at the Myrtle Beach Classic and in a tie for 45th place. A higher finish appeared well within his grasp earlier in the tournament, with the 28-year-old finding himself in a share of the lead during the second round, but nonetheless it was a strong result for his first PGA Tour start in nearly four years and just his second since 2019.
Despite enjoying plenty of success as an amateur and playing his first PGA event at just 17, Ruffels has had limited opportunity at the top level over the past few years. He has, however, begun to make a name for himself via The Lads YouTube channel, on which he appears alongside his compatriot and 13-time PGA Tour winner, Jason Day. Their channel currently boasts 208,000 followers and counting.
How did he qualify for the Myrtle Beach Classic?
It's that growing YouTube fame that ultimately brought him back to the PGA Tour. Ruffels won his way through to the Myrtle Beach Classic via the Q at Myrtle Beach, a qualifying event which this year included just eight content creators; Grant Horvat, George Bryan, Peter Finch, Micah Morris, Luke Kwon, Sam-Heung Min, Chance Taylor, and Ruffels. Ruffels earned a spot at the event by defeating Taylor in 18 holes of match play at the first round of the event, before besting Kwon, Morris and Horvat in a four-man stroke play second round.
The tournament
Nerves would have been forgivable at Myrtle Beach for Ruffels given his lack of recent PGA Tour experience, but he certainly didn’t show them in Round 1, draining six birdies en route to a round of 67. Four birdies in eight holes the next day saw him scoot to -6 and very prominent on the leaderboard, but while he continued to play steady golf thereafter, the quality of the rest of the field saw him gradually fall down the leaderboard and eventually finish more than ten shots off the pace.
The Myrtle Beach Classic carries with it a prize pool of $4 million, $720,000 of which goes to the winner. Ruffels will take home with him around $13,000 for his 45th place finish, as well as a $5,000 flight credit which is given to every player who makes it to the weekend at the ONEFlight sponsored event.
What next for Ruff?
Ruffels’ performance at the Myrtle Beach Classic highlighted that he is more than capable of competing at the top level, but while any ambitions he may harbour about a return to top-tier professional golf are certainly not unrealistic, he’s got bigger (well, other) fish to fry for the time being.
Aside from the continued growth of The Lads channel, Ruffels will be one of the pioneering members of Your Golf Tour, set to take place later this year. Your Golf Tour is an initiative led by Grant Horvat and the Bryan Bros which will see 16 hand-selected golfers (plus wildcards) from the creative realm compete across four tournaments, with a minimum of $1 million on the line at the final event. The tour is by design made up of some of the best golfers in the creative space, with PGA Tour winner Wesley Bryan and 2017 Masters participant Brad Dalke leading the charge.
Those two, along with George Bryan and Grant Horvat, will each pick their own team on a Draft Night prior to the first event. Based on his recent form, Ruffels will most likely be one of the first picked.
