No more incognito: Ryan Ruffels brings massive YouTube following to Myrtle Beach in PGA Tour comeback
Ryan Ruffels has been rolling with the punches for the higher a part of a decade.
The end result? A number of eyeballs and an assuredness that he is precisely the place he is supposed to be.
Last time he teed off on the PGA Tour, Ruffels did so below the radar as a relative unknown. That was 2022 on the Shriners Children’s Open.
He will not be gifted that anonymity this week on the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic.
The former PGA Tour player-turned-YouTube creator makes his long-anticipated return to the Tour this week in South Carolina thanks to successful The Q, a creator-led qualifier at Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club.
“This time coming from more of a YouTube space, it’s been a lot more fanfare. A lot more support. My social media is going crazy leading up to event,” Ruffels advised reporters Wednesday. “When I qualified for Shriners on Monday, I went under the radar and could do my own thing. Very different experience but equally as excited.”
The 28-year-old Australian was the Thirteenth-ranked newbie in the world earlier than turning skilled in January 2016, when he debuted on the Farmers Insurance Open.
In the ten years since, he is bounced round from the PGA Tour Americas to the Korn Ferry Tour. Yet, nothing’s had a much bigger impression on his sport than social media, and the way he is realized to leverage it as a path again into probably the most aggressive golf circles.
“You always have an idea of what you want things to look like,” Ruffels defined. “I’d say more often than not they most likely do not find yourself precisely the best way that you just deliberate them. For me, it definitely did not, however I believe I’m proper the place I’m supposed to be in loads of methods.
“You roll with the punches: You take the good with the bad,” he added. “You figure out where your next opportunity is going to lie and how you’re going to make something of yourself.
Ruffels figured there was a real opportunity to go down the social media path and felt like he knew enough of the right people to feel confident about launching his YouTube channel that now draws more than 66,000 subscribers.
He said he maintained his game despite bringing the “temperature down a little bit” to present it off on YouTube.
“As anybody chasing the professional golf dream knows, it’s a tough one,” he mentioned. “When you are not proper on the higher echelons of the sport, it is costly too. I sort of wished to use YouTube as perhaps an avenue down that down the street I may give myself alternatives in skilled golf. Here we’re.
“I guess that plan is somewhat falling into place.”
Last man standing
Ruffels used his 20 PGA profession begins to his benefit at The Q.
Grant Horvat, who gained the Creator Classic Series occasion at TPC Sawgrass final yr, jumped out to an early lead after 4 consecutive birdies, however it was Ruffels’ bogey-free again 9 that proved to be the trump card of the two-round occasion. The match began with match play contests at Rivers Edge Golf Club earlier than being whittled down to the 4 gamers that superior to Pawleys.
Ruffels was in a position to play a spherical at Dunes Golf and Beach Club following his Q victory, his first expertise on the course.
“It’s a long course — that suits me,” he mentioned. “Driver, I think is a really important part of my game, something that I always kind of go back on. … I’ve become a really good chipper over the last kind of year or two. So, if I need to scramble a little bit, I’ll hopefully have that kind of to my advantage.”
So, what is the greatest distinction between being a Tour skilled and a social media star?
Ruffels says it is the cadence of which criticism is heard, obtained and realized from.
“It’s not so intense every day in terms of criticizing myself and the different parts of my game, so it’s allowed my kind of, I guess, natural talent and athleticism to shine a little bit more because I’m able to play more freely, and it’s not everything to me every time I step up to the tee,” he defined.
Brooks Koepka returns to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, this week because the betting favourite to win an opposite-field occasion.
The subsequent Fitzpatricks?
Ruffels’ sister, Gabriela, has had her personal success on the hyperlinks. She completed T-9 on the 2025 Evian Championship, only a decade after leaving tennis for golf.
Winning has change into a part of her DNA, with the brother and sister duo claiming the the 2025 Grass League Championship in a team event.
“Just another thing that I didn’t ever foresee happening that happened. I think if you’re a brother-brother or a sister-sister kind of combination, you might get a chance to play like Alex and Matt did at the Zurich or, I’m sure Nelly and Jess [Korda] maybe at a Solheim Cup, but as a brother-sister there’s not many opportunities where you might get a chance to play with each other,” Ryan mentioned. “To be able to play with my sister, who is obviously a phenomenal player in her own right out on the LPGA Tour, was such a cool experience and to win that with her. “Everyone has been telling me that she carried me, so this week maybe I can hold my own a little bit.”
“I’ll remember that forever, and I think she will be as well,” he added.
Matt Fitzpatrick and his youthful brother Alex mixed for a 1-under 71 in alternate shot play on Sunday, to pull out a drama-filled, single-stroke victory in the Zurich Classic and usher the youthful Fitzpatrick onto the PGA Tour via 2028.
