Former Rebels gang member Ryan Peake now a rising star on the PGA tour of Australasia

He was once jailed for five years for assault but Ryan Peake has put his dark past behind and is now focused on becoming a golf star.

Ryan Peake during the Sandbelt Invitational. Photo: Paul Shire

Rising Australian golfer Ryan Peake says he wants people to be aware of his dark past as he charts an unlikely journey from prison to the top of the PGA tour of Australasia.

West Australian Peake is currently on the edge of the top 20 for the PGA tour of Australasia order of merit, his first full year on the tour in his comeback to competitive golf after serving five years in prison for serious assault.

A former member of the Rebels bikie group, Peake was imprisoned shortly after his 21st birthday following a serious assault.

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It was rock bottom for the former golf prodigy who during his amateur career once roomed and paired with Aussie superstar Cameron Smith to win a trans-Tasman series event.

“I was young and I was stupid,” he says.

“When I first went to jail, my mum said to me, ‘I’m glad you’re in jail because I know where you are at night time’. I was somewhat safe.”

Ryan Peake during the Sandbelt Invitational. Photo: Paul Shire

Peake said it was renowned golf coach Ritchie Smith, a mentor who has guided the likes of Minjee and Min Woo Lee, who reached out whilst he was coming to the end of his prison sentence to encourage him back to the greens.

From the initial step of playing club tournaments on day release, he is now 31 and playing his first full schedule on the PGA Tour of Australasia and is near the leaderboard again at the Webex Players Series Sydney event at Castle Hill Country Club.

He hopes to play in the New Zealand Open and New Zealand PGA in the coming weeks, if he can secure a visa to enter the country.

“Obviously there are a lot of people that don’t agree with my story, but a lot know how I’ve come back and dealt with it,” Peake says.

“I brought all that stuff upon myself. I never felt sorry for myself.

“I’m only getting started with the repercussions of my past now I’m starting to travel internationally and wanting to play overseas tours.

“But I just want people to take a lesson from it and avoid it.”

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