He’s the son of tennis stars Ray Ruffles, the former world number 26 who represented Australia at the Davis Cup in the 1970s, and Anna Maria Ruffles-Fernandez, who won five doubles titles in the 1980s.
Sister Gabriela is also a rising tennis star, but Ryan’s followed a different path.
The 16-year-old won the World Junior Golf Championship at Torrey Pines earlier this year and seems destined for greatness.
Previous winners include Jason Day and Tiger Woods.
He says he relished the pressure in the closing holes.
“Yeah it was in the balance, I was one up with three to go,” he said.
“But I love being under pressure, that’s what I play for, so to do that was heaps of fun.”
Ryan says his parents have been a huge influence.
“Mum and Dad have a great history in sport which helps me a lot in golf with the mental side of playing elite sport,” he said.
“They’ve played in majors, so having that kind of help is very useful.”
But tennis quickly took a back seat.
“I did like tennis, but not half as much as golf, so that decision came pretty easy for me,” he said.
Anna-Maria says after dabbling in tennis and football, things changed when he was 10.
"Yes, that was the end of that, he never looked back after that first golf tournament," she says.
'That's a tournament everyone wants to be a part of one day'
Born in Florida, Ryan and his family moved to Canberra then Melbourne, where he’s trying to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship this weekend at his home course Royal Melbourne.
If he does, he’ll book an automatic ticket to next year’s prestigious US Masters at the famous Augusta course.
"To have that little spot at the Masters there at the end, that's a tournament everyone wants to be a part of one day, so it'd be cool to be there next April,” he said.
“There probably is (more pressure), just having that little prize at the end, but pressure is good, that’s something we all play for but at the end of the day it’s just about winning another golf tournament.”
Coach Martin Joyce says Ryan could be anything.
"We keep having to sort of pinch ourselves and realise how young he is,” he said.
“On and off the course he seems a lot older than he is. I think from a technical point of view though, he's fantastic. One of the nice things is he’s really open to learn and wants to know how to do things better not just on the course, but off the course as well.”
Joyce says one story sums up the 16-year-old’s extraordinary appetite for competition.
“It is (unusual), but that’s a lot of fun,” he said.
“There was one occasion last year when I was caddying for him in the interstate series, he was one down with two to go, and he hit it into trouble off the tee, and said ‘this is exactly where I want to be’.
“And I looked at him and said ‘I’d prefer you to be right in the middle of the fairway’, but he loved the idea of being the underdog and trying to get it done, and he hit a great shot on the last to win.”
Ryan is in Year 11 at Melbourne’s Haileybury College, and with such talent for a golfer yet to finish school, it's easy to get carried away.
“He’s willing to be the best, and I think he can,” says Joyce.
“It's not going to happen tomorrow or even in the next five years. He knows it's a long journey. But I think he can be as good as he wants to be. I know number one is a goal, but that all takes time."
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