'I was a gang member and spent five years in one of world's toughest jails - now I'm playing at The Open'

Australian golfer Ryan Peake is preparing to write the next chapter of his remarkable redemption story at The 153rd Open Championship this week. In March this year, the left-hander qualified for the fourth and final major of the year, at Royal Portrush, with victory at the 104th New Zealand Open.

That first ever professional victory, on his Asian Tour debut, took place a little over 10 years after a conviction and five-year jail sentence for assault aged just 21. A promising youth golfer, Peake had lost his way and became a member of a notorious motorcycle gang in Australia.

Having fallen out of love with the game, Peake signed up to become a member of The Rebels. It became an all-consuming love affair and brotherhood, where differences with rival gangs were settled with their fists.

"How did it unfold?’ Peake says when asked about how he ended up inside. "Basically it was the life I was living. Someone else out there was living the same sort of lifestyle and was making threats. I'm not saying it's right I've gone and beat someone up but I haven't gone and beat up a dad who's just doing nothing on his front lawn.

‘He was a person that was living my lifestyle. I’m not justifying it. But that's how we would speak to each other. I mean, meet their character with your character and whatever prevails from there. He was doing some bad things, we had knowledge then he made some pretty heinous threats.

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"So we went to deal with it. Honestly, it wasn't meant to happen like that. We were generally just going there for a chat. He was probably going to get a couple of punches, that’s it. It just happened to be the threats he threatened us with were true. He was armed and it escalated from there."

The victim ended up with a fractured skull and fractured arms. When the police came to arrest him, he held his hands up immediately. "It was my choices that I made that led me to there."

Now 31, Peake warmed up for his big date in Northern Ireland with a T33 finish behind ultimate champion Scott Vincent at International Series Morocco, the fourth of 10 elevated Asian Tour events that offer a pathway onto the LIV Golf League. Things could have been even better too – Peake sat T12 following a five-under third round of 68.

It’s a remarkable recovery, from the lows of incarceration to the highs of elite competitive golf against some of the world's best. It is one that may not have happened at all had Peake not been contacted by former coach Ritchie Smith while in jail.

Smith, who works with fellow Australians such as PGA Tour winner Min Woo Lee and sister Minjee Lee, a three-time major champion among others, wrote to Peake while in prison to offer words of encouragement for a player he had worked with as a 17-year-old. Peake responded with an apologetic letter of his own, and from that point on, his future changed.

Peake explained: “For someone of his calibre to reach out to someone like me and pretty much drag me out of the trenches, you know, it doesn't speak volumes on me, it speaks volumes on him.”

“There was obviously a lot of changes that we had to make, there were vigorous programmes set out. It was up to about a five-year plan, and, yes, he believed we could do it. He pretty much worked out the mapping and the planning of what we were going to do, and I just stuck with it.”

Peake admits the mental aspect was the more challenging as he plotted his climb back to the top following his eventual release in 2019. It took a number of years and a lot of sacrifices and graft before he earned full playing privileges on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for the 2024-2025 season, and that life-changing victory in New Zealand.

He said: “I had already got pretty fit in there, so it was more just mental - basically going from not having any real aspirations in life to then trying to basically tell yourself, while still in prison, that you are going to become a professional golfer. You know there’s a bit of mental work to get there.” Your team can only push you so far and tell you so much, and the rest of it, you have to start to believe in it yourself. It did take me some time, but I got there in the end!”

The left-hander was full of praise for the opportunities being offered by the Asian Tour and The International Series. He said: “At the moment, I'm fresh out here on the Asian Tour.”

“Events like these (International Series Morocco) attract high profile names. You are on the Asian Tour, which is a great tour, but then when you have major champions playing as well, and the elevated prize purses, it just gives it that added significance. These 10 events are growing the Asian Tour massively.

“I'm out here trying to play the best golf that I can, and whatever those pathways provide me, the more the merrier. Definitely, I'm chasing every single pathway that there is.”

Looking ahead to his chances in Northern Ireland this week, he added: “A lot of this stuff wasn't on the programme. But, you know, obviously I am excited to play. I don't think I really know how big it is, to be honest, but obviously once I get there and sort of have a bit of a look around, it'll probably hit me a little bit more.”

Teeing it up alongside Peake are three players from the LIV Golf League who earned their places via the Open Qualifying Series at International Series Macau presented by Wynn.

Macau champion Carlos Ortiz, the Torque GC player, is joined by 2018 Masters champion and 4Aces GC star Patrick Reed plus Jason Kokrak of Smash GC for the tournament which gets underway on Thursday.

Building on his victory in Macau, Ortiz has continued to impress with a T4 finish at the U.S. Open and three top-10 performances in Miami, Korea, and Virginia. Reed has also been in red-hot form since then, placing third at this year’s Masters and securing a win at LIV Golf Dallas.

Kokrak, meanwhile, recently posted a solid T10 finish in Andalucía ahead of the final Major of the year.