Ryan Ruffels has been rolling with the punches for the better part of a decade.
The result? A lot of eyeballs and an assuredness that he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.
Last time he teed off on the PGA Tour, Ruffels did so under the radar as a complete unknown. That was 2022 at the Shriners Children’s Open.
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He won’t be gifted that anonymity this week at 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 winning The Q, a creator-led qualifier at Q 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 told reporters Wednesday. “When I Monday qualified for Shriners, 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 13th-ranked amateur in the world before turning professional in January 2016, when he debuted at the Farmers Insurance Open.
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In the 10 years since, he’s bounced around from the PGA Tour Latinoamerica to the Korn Ferry Tour. Nothing’s had a bigger impact on his game than social media, and how he’s learned to leverage it as a path back into the most competitive golf circles.
“You always have an idea of what you want things to look like,” Ruffels explained. “I’d say most of the time they probably don’t end up exactly the way that you planned them. For me, it certainly didn’t, but I think I’m right where I’m supposed to be in a lot of ways.
“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.
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He said he maintained his game despite bringing “temperature down a little bit” to show it off on YouTube.
“As anybody chasing the professional golf dream knows, it’s a tough one,” he said. “When you’re not right at the upper echelons of the game, it’s expensive too. I kind of wanted to use YouTube as maybe an avenue down that down the road I could give myself opportunities in professional golf. Here we are.
“I guess that plan is somewhat falling into place.”
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Last man standing
Ruffels used his 20 career PGA starts to his advantage at The Q.
Grant Horvat, who won the Creator Classic Series event at TPC Sawgrass last year, jumped out to an early lead behind four consecutive birdies but it was Ruffels’ bogey-free back nine that proved to be the trump card of the two-round event that started with match play contests at Rivers Edge Golf Club before being whittled down to the four players that advanced to Pawleys.
Ruffels was able play a round at Dunes Golf and Beach Club following his Q victory, his first experience at the course.
“It’s a long course — that suits me,” he said. “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.”
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So what’s the biggest difference between being a Tour professional and a social media star?
Ruffels says it’s the cadence of which criticism is heard, obtained and learned from.
“It’s not so intense every day in terms of critiquing 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 explained.
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The next Fitzpatricks?
Ruffels sister, Gabriela, has had her own success on the links. She finished T-9 at the 2025 Evian Championship, just a decade after leaving tennis for golf.
Winning has become part of her DNA, with the brother and sister duo claiming the most recent 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 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 said. “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.
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“I’ll remember that forever, and I think she will as well,” he added.
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