ORLANDO, Florida – Gabriela Ruffels gets starstruck from time to time, whether it’s meeting tennis icon Billie Jean King for the first time (as she did a few weeks ago), playing golf with fellow Aussie Jason Day (as she did last month) or warming up on the range alongside Annika Sorenstam (as she did this week at the Gainbridge LPGA). The latter encounter resulted from Ruffels making her LPGA debut as a pro as Sorenstam makes her return to the tour for the first time since 2008.
“I think everyone wants to play with (Annika) this week,” said Ruffels. “She’s the greatest of all time, and it’s really cool to see her walking around.”
For all those starry moments, 20-year-old Ruffels seems to be taking this next chapter in her short but highly-decorated golf career in stride. Ruffels plays under the Australian flag but was actually born in Orlando, though she never considered the Sunshine State home as her parents moved shortly thereafter.
It is somewhat of a home now, as she has joined Isleworth Golf and Country Club in nearby Windermere. She’s staying with her brother Ryan, a Korn Ferry Tour player, but plans to get her own place soon. This is the first time she’s seen Nona.
Ruffels doesn’t have a home tour as of yet. She left college without status of any kind and played last week on the Cactus Tour and finished eighth. A top-15 finish at the ANA Inspiration last year as an amateur earned her a spot in this year’s field. She also has an exemption into the Symetra Tour’s inaugural Copper Rock Championship in Hurricane, Utah, in late April.
Other than that, Ruffels is feverishly writing tournaments hoping to get whatever sponsor exemptions she can. She can also try to Monday qualify.
“I just wanted to start playing these pro events as a pro,” Ruffels said of her decision to leave USC one semester early. “I was also able to finish my degree online, which was big. I didn’t have to be on campus.”
Ruffels could earn her card and avoid Q-School by either winning an LPGA event or earning the equivalent of the top 40 on the points list by season’s end. Last year Ruffels, the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur, posted top-15 finishes in two majors.
She tees off at 8:22 a.m. on Thursday alongside Lindsey Weaver and Gerina Piller.
Like the LPGA’s Korda sisters, both of Ruffels’ parents, Anna-Maria Fernandez and Ray Ruffels, were elite-level tennis players. Ruffels signed with Nike and now shares the same agent as the Kordas.
Ruffels, who first gained fame in Australia as an elite tennis player before switching to golf at age 15, has been surrounded by professionals and has been on a path to becoming a professional athlete for most of her life.
Sorenstam, who left the tour in 2008 with 72 victories, advised her to “look and learn” in the first year.
“It’s a lot of responsibility,” Sorenstam said of the professional life. “It’s week after week, so you got to learn how to pace yourself. Early on it’s so easy to want to be part of everything that you’re out there Monday through Sunday and you’re exhausted. You have to be out there and make sure it’s quality over quantity.
“I’m sure she’s going to be very, very successful. I like the way she plays and the way she approaches the game. She has a very strong mind, and that’s something you’re going to need out here.”
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