Gabriela Ruffels

Ruffels is the daughter of former Trojan women's tennis great and national champion Anna-Maria Fernandez, while her father, Ray Ruffels, was also a highly successful professional tennis player. Ray reached a high of No. 27 in the world tennis rankings in 1976 and was a three-time Australian Open semifinalist (1968, 1969, 1975). He was also a four-time member of Australia's Davis Cup team, won eight singles titles and 16 doubles titles, including the 1977 Australian Open doubles crown, and reached the 1978 mixed-doubles finals at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open with partner Billie Jean King.
By the time Grabiela was a teenager, the family had moved from Laguna Niguel, California, to Ray Ruffels' native Australia, where she enrolled in a tennis academy in Melbourne. There, she was home-schooled and played a lot of tennis, but at 14, she was burned out from tennis. Soon after, her mother took her to a driving range, and Gabriela loved it from the first second. Driving led to playing nine holes, and then a full 18, and then to Ruffels getting her first set of clubs at 15. Grabriela blossomed in golf. She played in the 2016 U.S. Girls Junior but didn't make it out of stroke play. She represented Australia at the 2017 World Junior Girls Championships, was third at the 2017 FGC Junior International, and qualified for the Australian Amateur Match Play. In 2016, she represented Australia in international events in Singapore and Thailand, competed in the Women's Western Amateur, and was named to the Victorian Women's and Junior State teams. She also qualified for the Junior World Championships and competed at the Australian Amateur.
Gabriela wasn't the first of the Ruffels kids to break from tennis and go to golf. Gabriela's older brother, Ryan, also played competitive tennis and fell in love with golf. At 17 and ranked 13th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Ryan Ruffels turned pro and played his first PGA Tour event in 2016.
Ray Ruffels, who, like Ryan, turned pro as a teenager and did not attend college, wanted Gabriela to follow in her mother's footsteps and have the chance for a degree. When Gabriela chose to play at USC, her parents moved back to Southern California, settling in Palm Desert.
While competing for USC, she helped the Trojans reach the 2018 NCAA Women's Golf Championship semifinals. Ruffels appeared at the Canadian Women's Amateur, placing 38th at the 2018 edition and 21st at the 2019 event. In 2019, Ruffels became the first-ever Australian to win the U.S. Women's Amateur. She beat Albane Valenzuela 1 up in the finals. She also won the 2019 North & South Women's Amateur. With her U.S. Amateur win, Ruffels was exempted from the 2020 U.S. Women's Open. Additional 2020 events Ruffels received exemptions for were the ANA Inspiration, Evian Championship, and AIG Women's Open. Ruffels was runner-up at the 2020 U.S Women's Amateur the following year. She lost to Rose Zhang on the 38th hole.
In professional events, Ruffels was T-13th at the 2020 U.S. Women's Open and missed the cut at the 2020 AIG Women's Open. At the ANA Inspiration, Ruffels was T-15th in 2020 and T-19th in 2021. During the 2021 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, Ruffels finished the event T-33rd. Ruffels announced her decision to turn professional on February 10, 2021. As a professional golfer that year, Ruffels competed in LPGA Tour events while appearing at the Symetra and Ladies European Tour. During golf events held in 2021, Ruffels was 4th at the IOA Championship and T-17th at the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open. She played on the Epson Tour in 2022 and 2023. After the 2022 season, she could not play in the LPGA Q Series because she failed to register for the tournament by the deadline. She was 15th on the 2022 Epson Tour money list.
2023 Notes: She played in 13 Epson Tour events, making 12 cuts with six top-ten finishes. Three of them were wins at the Carlisle Arizona Women's Golf Classic, Garden City Charity Classic, and the Four Winds Invitational. She won $159,926 to lead the Epson Tour money list. She finished first in the Race for the Card standings to earn an LPGA Tour membership for the 2024 season and earned Epson Tour Player of the Year honors. She played in six LPGA events, making the cut in all of them. Her best finish was T-19th at the CPKC Women's Open. She played in two majors, T-24th at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship and T-33rd at the U.S. Women's Open, played at Pebble Beach.
2024 Notes: Played in 25 LPGA Tour events, making 20 cuts with four top-ten finishes. She was 32nd on the CME Points list and 41st on the money list with $920,679 in earnings. She had her first top-10 finish on the LPGA Tour with a T-3rd at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship. She was a shot back of the Nelly Korda/Ryann O'Toole playoff. She finished 3rd at the Cognizant Founders Cup but was 15 shots back of the winner, Rose Zhang. The next week was T-3rd at the Mizuho Americas Open, four shots back of the winner, Nelly Korda. Shot 69-68 over the weekend at the ISPS Handa Women's Scottish Open to finish T-6th, eight shots back of the winner, Lauren Coughlin. She ended her season finishing T-35th at the CME Group Tour Championship.
2025 Notes: Best finish, T-9th at the Amundi Evian Championship.