Following in the footsteps of Korda sisters Nelly and Jessica, Australia’s Gabi Ruffels last week continued her family’s sporting dynasty – not between the tramlines on a tennis court, but on the green fairways of the LPGA Tour.
Ruffels, the 2019 US Women’s Amateur champion, made her professional debut in the Gainbridge LPGA tournament at Lake Nona in Florida, where she made the cut in a stellar field that included 15 of the world’s top 20 players.
The 20-year-old has no playing status on the LPGA Tour, meaning she’s relying on sponsor’s invitations – not the easiest way to break into the big-time. But she, and those who’ve followed her career closely, won’t be unduly concerned by that obstacle.
The former world amateur No 5 – who almost won back-to-back US Women’s Amateur titles, losing at the 38th hole in the 2020 final – is already creating enough interest to suggest tournament promoters might soon be lining up to offer her starts.
Yet it is tennis where she has an almost regal lineage: her father Ray, like the Korda sisters’ father Petr, played the global tennis circuit for years, achieving notable results in grand slam tournaments.
At his peak in the 1960s and 70s, Ray Ruffels reached the Australian Open semifinals three times. In 1978, he partnered with Billie Jean King to reach the Wimbledon and US Open mixed doubles finals. He also represented Australia in four Davis Cups.
On the other side of the family tree is mother Anna-Maria Fernandez, the 1981 University of Southern California national collegiate tennis player of the year who went on to win five WTA doubles titles.
With such bloodlines, a tennis career surely beckoned for the young Gabriela.
It seemed that way for a while.
When Gabriela was representing Australia in international team events as a teenager, the family decided to move from Laguna Niguel in California to Australia, where she was enrolled in a Melbourne tennis academy. Her days consisted of homeschooling, gym workouts and court time, a relentless regime with little time for friends or fun.
The grind quickly took its toll. “I was only 14, and I couldn’t imagine doing that the rest of my life,†Ruffels said. “So I just said, ‘I’ve had enough.’ â€
After a few months, her mother took the 15-year-old to a golf practice range, hoping her obvious sporting talent might find an outlet elsewhere. Golf immediately won Gabi over – the feeling of a sweetly struck shot, the variety of clubs and shots she could hit, the freedom of walking the fairways …
“I loved it from the first second,†she said.
That was barely six years ago. Yet last Thursday she teed up alongside the game’s greatest players – including the Korda sisters.
“I think without COVID, I probably would have stayed (in school). But with COVID and me doing all my classes online, I figured I could go to classes online and finish my degree.â€
Gabi ruffels
Her father said golf was Gabriela's true calling, as it was with her older brother Ryan, who played his first PGA Tour event in 2016 and now plies his trade on the Korn Ferry Tour.
“She just wasn't happy playing tennis, having long days at Melbourne Park and not a lot of interaction with other kids,†Ray Ruffels told AAP.
“She liked the camaraderie of golf and started to have good scores very quickly. … Her success is a combination of talent and hard work, for sure.â€
As for Gabi herself, she feels her natural competitiveness and ability to remain calm under pressure stem from her early days at various elite-level tennis academies.
“I can attribute that to my tennis,†she said. “When I came into golf, I felt like I had an athletic background that helped me progress quickly. I knew what it meant to work hard, to be elite in your sport and how to handle pressure, nerves. I feel like my years in tennis weren’t a complete waste.â€
Ray, who like Ryan turned pro as a teenager and did not attend college, wanted Gabriela to follow in her mother’s footsteps and study for a degree. When Gabi chose to play at USC, enrolling in a business administration course, her parents moved back to southern California, settling in Palm Desert.
The 20-year-old was in her senior year of college golf at USC, and about to start the last semester of her degree, when she decided to turn pro – also passing up an opportunity to play in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April. The coronavirus forced her hand.
“I was wondering, should I stay and maybe try to win an NCAA (title)?†she told LPGA.com. “But I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while. And with COVID, things kind of changed. I think without COVID, I probably would have stayed (in school). But with COVID and me doing all my classes online, I figured I could go to classes online and finish my degree. And I might as well get out there and play as a pro.â€
With an endorsement deal with Nike signed already, she headed to Lake Nona for the next step in her extraordinary golfing journey.
One person keeping tabs on Ruffels is former tennis champion Todd Woodbridge, a 16-time grand slam doubles winner.
A member of Royal Melbourne Golf Club and a single-figure handicapper, Woodbridge is a former protégé of Ray Ruffels, and says Gabi could have no better mentor than her father.
“I consider Ray a father figure in my life. Not only was he my tennis coach, I spent more time with him over that period than with my own dad,†Woodbridge said.
“Ray in my career played many roles – he was my tennis coach, mentor, psychologist and father figure.
“The thing that I most recall was his belief in his players. As a coach, Ray didn’t teach just tennis. He also taught the importance of being a good person who was able to cope with life.â€
So Gabi entered the shark pool of professional golf as well-prepared as any debutant – with a glittering amateur career behind her; an uncommonly mature temperament; peerless sporting genes; and a mother and father who are as far removed from the “ugly†sporting parent as could possibly be imagined.
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