For some players, certain courses just suit them. It would be hard to imagine a course that fits Gabriela Ruffels better than Pinehurst No. 2. After finishing runner-up at the No. 2 course’s annual North & South Amateur in 2018, the Southern Cal rising junior went a step further by winning the 2019 North/South — one of the most historic amateur golf tournaments in the world. But for someone who learned the game on the sandy landscapes and wall-to-wall short grasses of Australia’s Sandbelt, it’s easy to understand how Ruffels would feel at home on No. 2. This will go down as a busy stretch for Ruffels — after winning the North & South (which propelled her to No. 52 in the world rankings), she immediately headed to Alberta for the Canadian Women’s Am, with the U.S. Women’s Am in Mississippi waiting for her in August — but Ruffels already has established it as an unforgettable summer.
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LYING FOUR: Am I right that you were born in California and then moved to Australia?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I was born in Florida, actually. We lived there for a year, and then my parents moved to California — my mom and her family is from California. She grew up there. We lived in California for maybe nine years. Then I moved to Australia when I was nine and lived there for eight or nine years, and moved back to California for college at USC.
LYING FOUR: Where do you consider home?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: It’s a good question, right? I consider both places home. I spent the first half of my life in California, and I love it there. I feel like when I came back to California for college, it was like coming home. But I do also feel like my home, where most of my friends are from high school, is Australia; where I started playing golf is Australia. My home course is in Australia. I consider both equally home. It’s a pretty nice situation to have. They’re both pretty nice places.
LYING FOUR: That connection to California must have made Southern Cal a natural fit for you. Did you consider other schools, or was it always going to be Southern Cal?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I looked at maybe six to eight schools, but I always had in mind that I wanted to go to USC. I kinda grew up with it — my mom went to USC. And she’s always been a big fan. We went to football games when I was younger, and actually her three other sisters went to USC too. It’s always been in the family. Even when I was looking at other schools, I knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to go to USC. And once Andrea [Gaston], the coach at the time, offered me a full scholarship to go there, I was like, “Yep, this is where I’m going.”
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Credit: Tim Cowie
LYING FOUR: So when did you start playing golf?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I started playing golf when I was 14 1/2 or 15. I played tennis pretty competitively before I started playing golf.
LYING FOUR: Where in Australia did you play?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I played at Victoria Golf Club. That was my home course.
LYING FOUR: God, that kills me.
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Yeah. I just loved the members there. There were a lot of juniors there that I could play with, and that was really nice. It was a great course, I thought, to learn golf on. It’s definitely not your typical U.S. course — it requires a lot of creativity around the green, and it has pretty fast greens too. You get pretty good at chipping and putting around the green. There wasn’t any thick rough like there is here, or big trees that were in the way. It was one of the Sandbelt courses, a pretty famous course, kind of like Royal Melbourne. It was a great development course for me to learn golf on.
LYING FOUR: I was going to ask you what it is about Pinehurst No. 2 that suits your game so well, but if you grew up playing Sandbelt golf, then maybe that answers the question.
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Actually, when I first saw Pinehurst, I remember telling my caddie, “This is very similar to what I’m used to back home at my home course.” Pinehurst is not your typical U.S. course — no thick rough, not tree-lined. I like Pinehurst because I know that it’s a challenge, and it’s going to be a challenge to the rest of the field. You have to be patient out there. There aren’t going to be great scores, so you have to be pretty steady. That’s what I’m used to from Sandbelt golf.
LYING FOUR: I saw that you used a local caddie. Did most of the top players use locals, or did they bring their own?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I think a lot of them did use a local caddie. Some of them used their parents or something like that, but I used this caddie last year when I played in the North-South last year. He’s great. He’s been a caddie at that course for five years now, since 2014. He knows the greens better than anyone and knows the course so well. I trust him. His help was a big part of my success. I just trusted him. He knew where to miss it and where to hit it. I put a lot of trust in him.
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LYING FOUR: Pinehurst No. 2 is a course where you can outthink yourself really easily. There are so many options that you find yourself considering options that you would never consider. When I was there, I found myself creating trouble for myself, just because there are so many possibilities. What was your strategy for getting around?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: My strategy was just hitting fairways and hitting greens. One of my host family, who’s a member there, just said, “The way to play this course is just to hit the middle of the green, no matter where the pin is, because the greens aren’t really that big.” But if you go pin-hunting on that course in a place where you shouldn’t, then you can get yourself into some pretty bad spots. It’s pretty simple, really — it’s just hitting the middle of the green. Putting was a big part, too. I left myself some pretty long putts. Your lag putting has to be pretty good to shoot good scores and play well.
Credit: Paul Goldberg/USC Athletics
LYING FOUR: Beating Emilia Migliaccio [9th-ranked amateur in the world] in the semifinals had to be a huge boost to your confidence.
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I’ve known Emilia — she plays at Wake Forest, and we play a lot of tournaments together. I didn’t realize that she was ranked that high until I beat her and someone told me. But I knew she was a great player and that it was going to be a tough match. That was probably one of my toughest matches in the whole event. I was down toward the end — I was 1-down on 15, and then I went on a good three-hole stretch to go 1-up on 18. That did gave me a lot of confidence. It definitely was one of my harder matches.
LYING FOUR: And then in the finals, you were 2-down and had to sit through a weather delay. What’d you do while you were waiting?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: Actually I was just sitting down inside, talking to my opponent, Doey [Choi], because we know each other pretty well. I wasn’t doing anything crazy. I wasn’t really doing anything — just sitting down, talking to her. Then we came back out, and I won three holes in a row. I knew I’d played pretty well on that stretch all week, so I was pretty confident there.
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LYING FOUR: What was the most important hole in that championship match? It sounded like No. 14 is where it all came together.
GABRIELA RUFFELS: I felt throughout the whole championship that the match didn’t really start until 14. I think the stretch from 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, was where the match really got important — not that the other holes weren’t important, but it seemed like that’s always where it was decided. They’re really challenging holes. Part of my success can be attributed to how I stayed steady on that last four holes.
LYING FOUR: I know you said earlier that your host family told you, “Just get on the greens, just aim for the centers of the greens” — and then I read what your caddie told you on 14 in the championship match, telling you just to put it in the center of the green, and you went after the flag instead. What was it about that moment that made you think that was the time to pull the trigger?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: At that point, I was all square. I’d had a similar shot to that in the morning, and I missed it a little, but I think — I don’t know. I just liked the look of that shot, for some reason. I had a good club in my hand — I think I had an 8-iron, something like that — and it set up well for my fade that I like to hit. So I thought, “OK, I’ll pull the trigger.” Thank God it worked out well, because that is not a pin that you should be going after. It’s all good and well now, but it could have been bad. I’m glad it worked out my way.
LYING FOUR: I know you had to leave Pinehurst and go to Edmonton, but have you had time to reflect on what winning a tournament like that means, and where it fits into your career accomplishments?
GABRIELA RUFFELS: It’s huge. I’ve been on the move since then, so I haven’t really had time to let it sink in, but I guess that’s golf: you win one week, and then you’re on to something else the next week. I’ll always remember that tournament.
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