Golf Australia national squad member Ryan Ruffels has signed with Wasserman Media Group as his management team.
Ruffels, 17, is No.8 in the world amateur rankings and, while he has no firm timeline to turn professional, is already one of the most highly touted players to come through Australian ranks in years with no less a star than Phil Mickelson having once made a personal recruiting call in an attempt to lure the youngster to Arizona State University.
Ruffels will join fellow Australian golfers Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith and Oliver Goss in the star-studded Wasserman stable. Others under the global company’s guidance include Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson, Hunter Mahan and Bernd Wiesberger.
Ruffels won the Australian junior championship for the second consecutive time this year, joining Adam Scott as the only players to have done so. Remarkably, Ruffels, who won by 15 strokes this year, still has one more year of eligibility.
Playing at No.1, he spearheaded Victoria’s unprecedented sweep of the junior and senior interstate team titles this year.
Importantly, however, the Year 12 student has already shown his aptitude against the game’s professional champions. Ruffels has twice finished in the top 30 at the Australian Open, including becoming one of the youngest to ever make the storied tournament’s cut at age 15.
And in his first appearance on the US PGA Tour in July, Ruffels showed his appetite for the big time when he fired a 66 and led the time-honoured Canadian Open during the first round.
Wasserman’s Australian representative Ian Davis said he was delighted Ruffels had chosen the company for the next phase of his career.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Ryan to the team,” Davis said.
Wasserman (www.wmgllc.com) is a leading sports marketing and entertainment companies, with global expertise in athlete management, consulting, media rights, partnership and business development.