Who Is Gabriela Ruffels? Tennis Player Turned LPGA Tour Pro’s Life Explored

The LPGA Tour Pro Gabriela Ruffels is an Australian native, born on April 14, 2000, in Orlando, Florida. Ruffels’ parents, Anna-Maria Fernandez and Ray Ruffels, are former tennis players. Interestingly, the golf pro was herself an American former tennis player. Gabi Ruffels also has a business administration degree from the University of Southern California.

She graduated to the LPGA Tour from the Epson Tour as a professional golfer. Recently, as a rookie, she also participated in the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship. The young golfer displays a versatile personality through her career and education choices. Let’s dive deep into the story of this talented golf pro.

Gabi Ruffels’ career highlights in a nutshell

Recently, the 23-year-old finished at T3 at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, “It was such a special week considering that on the back nine on Friday I was outside the cut line,” said Ruffels. Now the Aussie is a step closer to securing her career-first LPGA Tour title.

Prior to golf though, Gabi Ruffels started her career by playing tennis and won twenty-one International Tennis Federation doubles events in Europe. However, her complete switch to golf occurred in 2015. As an amateur golfer, Ruffels initially played in Australia between 2016 and 2017. She was positioned ninth at the 2016 Australian Women’s Amateur and 17th at the 2017 Australian Women’s Amateur.

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As reported by Golf Australia, Ruffels casually made a statement that supports her humble nature towards the game. “I think that’s why I’ve done well as an amateur; I never really set myself huge goals like, ‘I want to win the US Amateur’ or ‘I want to win this tournament’. I have more immediate goals, and I like seeing how everything pans out,” she said.

In 2018, she joined the USC Trojans women’s golf team. At the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships, Ruffels tied for 38th in 2018 and 19th in 2019 at the individual events. The Australian was also a member of the international team that won the 2019 Arnold Palmer Cup.

The young golfer has played in 22 LPGA Tour events since 2019 and has successfully made the cut in 14 of them. She finished first on the Epson Tour’s official money list and earned the LPGA Tour membership for the 2024 season. Additionally, Ruffels was also honored as Epson Tour Player of the Year in 2023. Her family’s history with athletics certainly bodes well for the 23-year-old’s future.

More about the Ruffels family and her personal life

The LPGA star spent her childhood in Laguna Niguel, California, before her family moved to Melbourne, Australia. Her parents were professional tennis players; hence, her childhood passion for the game came to life when she was six years old and she started to practice the sport herself. However, as can be seen later, Gabriela Ruffels switched to her true love, ‘golf’.

The 23-year-old also has an older brother, Ryan, who was also a talented tennis player and became a successful golfer. He represented Australia in the 2014 Eisenhower Trophy and turned professional in 2016. Additionally, Ruffels also had a pet dog named Rio, who unfortunately passed away a few months ago.

Apart from tennis and golf, the young lady likes to chill out with her friends and travel. Also, she is quite active on social media and shares life updates on her Instagram handle often. Certainly, when the young golfer is not on the greens; she has many other things to do. However, behind every successful golfer, there are a few people whose help and support are essential to their triumph!

A look at Ruffels’ Caddie and sponsors!

In 2019, Justin Silverstein played the role of Ruffels’ caddie, and sometimes even the golfer’s mother, Anna-Maria Fernandez, took this responsibility for her daughter.

In addition to that, Gabi Ruffels’ clubs are sponsored by Ping. All in all, the Australian pro golfer is a fun-filled package of talent and beauty, and yes, she likes nachos!!

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