Aussie-born rookie Ryan Ruffels upstaged his more fancied colleagues including current World No. 2 Jason Day, World No. 4 Rickie Fowler and five-time Major winning Phil Mickelson to make the cut in his professional debut at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
Ruffels stood tall on the California coastline and just days after being enveloped in an unsavoury ‘friendly wager’ controversy with Mickelson.
And Ruffels admitted after his second-round 73 that Mickelson’s comments didn’t exactly make his professional debut any easier.
“It was difficult and a little added pressure,” he said. “But that’s fine. I was a bit more nervous on the first tee and I handled it well and despite all of that I was able to put together a couple of good rounds. Which I’m pretty happy with.”
Rookie Aussie pro Ryan Ruffels shows he was not ruffled by a controversy involving Phil Mickelson to make the cut on his pro career debut. (Photo – www.pgatour.com)
Exuding the class and grace that has so many targeting him as a future superstar, Ruffels took the episode as a learning experience.
“There’s going to be times in my career that there’s going to be off-course distractions that I have and they’re going to be there and I felt like that was, I guess, mature of me, if that’s the right word, to put that aside and focus on the golf and play some good golf this week.”
Playing in front of what is a pseudo-hometown crowd for a young man who lived in Orange County until he was 11, Ruffels glided confidently around the same course where he won the Junior World Championships just 17 months ago.
Day, who began the week with a virus, carded 72-74 to finish two-over par and outside the cutline for the first time in a US PGA Tour tournament since July, 2015. He missed just two cuts all last season, his breakthrough year in which he won five times, but Day’s whole family has been impacted by illness in the past week and he said he did not pick up a golf club until Thursday’s opening round in California.
The now 17-year old Melbourne-based Ruffels is competing on an invitation and hoping to make enough money in a few starts this season to secure a playing card for 2017.
He reached four-under at one point today playing on Torrey’s south course, the same course that he won the Callaway world junior championship, but he gave back shots with bogeys at the 11th and 12th holes and another from the greenside bunker at the 17th.
The Victorian Institute of Sport graduate and member of Golf Australia’s rookie squad of young professionals carded a one-over par 73 for the day and is one-under overall through two rounds.
Day was not the only big name to miss the cut; world No. 3 Rickie Fowler also suffered the same fate and so did Phil Mickelson. Gary Woodland of the United States and KJ Choi of South Korea lead the Open at nine-under par through two rounds.
