When the Open Championship was last held at Royal Portrush, in July 2019, Ryan Peake had only just been released from prison a few weeks earlier.
After his dream of being a professional golfer had fallen by the wayside, Peake became a member of a biker gang before serving a five-year sentence behind bars for assault back home in Australia.
He hadn’t hit a golf ball in over six years. The talent that had once marked him as one of his country’s most promising amateurs looked lost. Having battled depression, he was searching for a purpose in life.
With The Open now back at Portrush, the fact that Peake will be competing to win the Claret Jug speaks of one of the most remarkable backstories of any player in the long and storied history of golf’s greatest major.
This is blue-collar guy from a working-class background whose life took a very dark turn, only to then work his way back to the pinnacle of golf thanks to raw natural talent. It’s Sons of Anarchy meets Happy Gilmore.
Peake, 32, grew up in Western Australia, just outside Perth. At junior and amateur level, he was a team-mate and close friend of Cam Smith, the mullet-sporting Wizard of Oz who won The Open at St Andrews in 2022.
Ryan Peake celebrates after winning the 2025 New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort
Peake in his previous life as a bike gang member who was sentenced to five years in jail for assault
The Australian is a changed man as he strides the fairways at Portrush ahead of this week’s Open championship
A big, burly left-hander, he carved a reputation as a player who hit the ball a country mile. His career trajectory looked like it could well be intertwined with that of Smith.
But, even in those early years, Peake struggled away from golf. He was bullied at school and didn’t have many friends. In his teenage years, alcohol and depression became prominent issues in his life.
He initially turned pro in 2012 aged 19. By then, however, the horse had already bolted. His focus was not where it needed to be. Turning pro was merely a last-ditch attempt to find some kind of spark.
It didn’t work. Two years later, at 21, he was thrown in prison. He had been leading a double life towards the end of his first crack at golf. It all caught up with him.
His life on the golf course became increasingly distant as he became further embedded in the biker outlaw lifestyle with the Rebels Motorcycle Club.
‘My life had fallen into depression,’ he said. ‘I lost all self-esteem. I didn’t know who I was, lost all direction in my life. What happened (with the assault), I can’t say it was just one night, one mistake. It was years of build-up.’
The details around Peake’s arrest were grim. After hearing that a threat had been made against the Rebels, he and few of his associates confronted the rival gang member.
In a heated exchange, the man was said to have reached underneath his jacket and looked set to pull something out, only to be struck pre-emptively by Peake and knocked to the ground.
It’s a tale of redemption for Peake as he holds aloft the trophy after New Zealand triumph
The Australian is showered with champagne after his successful return to the game
A couple of weeks later, while working at his job as a greenkeeper at a local golf course, Peake was arrested and would eventually be sentenced to five years for GBH in the maximum security Hakea Prison.
Widely regarded as the worst facility of its kind in Australia, it’s Infested with rats and cockroaches. A report by the Australian Inspection Board branded it ‘cruel, inhuman, and degrading’.
Such was the ghastly nature of his surroundings, Peake refused his mum’s attempts to visit. Only his dad – a bricklayer-turned-greenkeeper originally from England – was allowed to visit.
‘I could see the disappointment in my dad’s eyes, wondering how his son went from a golfer to this,’ said Peake.
It was during his time in prison that Peake had time for some self-reflection. Knowing his future would be bleak if he returned to a life of crime with the ‘bikies’, he considered a return to golf.
After hearing this, his former coach Ritchie Smith made contact while Peake was in jail and the two began to speak once again.
‘I had lost touch with Peakey after he left golf and I didn’t know what happened to him,’ said Smith. ‘That’s not the person I knew. I was worried about him. He’s a good kid. He just f***** up.’
Within a week of leaving prison in 2019, Peake was back at the driving range with Smith at his side, trying to blow off the cobwebs after six years of golfing inactivity.
Ryan Peake gets a feel for the rough at Royal Portrush during a practice round
All eyes will be on Peake in Northern Ireland this week because of his extraordinary story
It did not take long for his talent to shine through once again. He hired a van and travelled around the country playing in every tournament possible, eventually winning his way on to the Challenger Tour of Australasia.
He won the New Zealand Open earlier this year, duly booking his spot at Portrush this week. Given where his life was six years ago, it’s a circular moment that speaks of redemption and a man rebuilding his life.
His chequered past still punctuates his everyday life. For instance, his criminal record means he will have visa issues entering certain countries if he tries to pursue a full-time career on the DP World Tour.
He has a British passport for now, on account of his dad, and it’s at Portrush this week where Peake will tee it up with the best players in the game
He doesn’t wish to be viewed as a role model. Nor does he hold any ill-feeling towards the people he once called brothers in the MC. ‘Those guys would die for you – that’s real,’ he said.
But his story is a compelling tale of of someone turning their life around when it looked to be heading down the darkest of paths.
Peake is back in the swing again and looking forward to the tournament that starts on Thursday
The former biker chats with his caddie on the first tee during a practice round on Tuesday
‘People use my story because that sells papers, right? This story is never, ever going to happen again,’ he said.
‘There’s never going to be another golfer, bikie, prisoner that plays an Open. It will never happen again.’
Golf is a sport that can often be very middle-class and unwelcoming to those of a more colourful, blue-collared background.
Peake’s story – warts and all – should be a reminder that nobody should ever be condemned to eternal damnation. He is living proof that everyone deserves a second chance in life.
