Of all the ways Ryan Peake has gone from a tiny and crowded prison cell to golf’s most historic tournament, who would have thought it would all rest on a British passport?
Nearly a few hundred years on, Peake is the reverse convict: an Australian with a criminal record only being able to enter the United Kingdom for its treasured golfing heirloom because of citizenship he’s held though his father, Mel.
“My dad was born in England,” Peake says.
Whereabouts?
“England,” he laughs, clearly not having taken time to delve too much into the family history. “I mean, that’s the reason I’m here this week.”
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Ryan Peake talks with his caddie on the first tee during a practice round prior ahead of the Open Championship. Picture: GettySource: Getty Images
The Australian left-hander, who earlier this year opened up to News Corp about his journey from a former Rebels bikie who spent five years in prison for a serious assault to top golfer, is speaking in a plush suite on the grounds of Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland before his debut major.
He’s holding his own press conference away from official R&A briefings because there’s been that much interest in his story.
A collection of journalists from European publications have been fascinated by his tale, taking out their notebooks at any time to learn more about this interloper who’s crashed golf’s clean cut elite. But Peake walks through the crowds and there’s barely a second glance from punters.
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Ryan Peake in his prison greensSource: SuppliedRyan Peake joined the Rebels.Source: Supplied
Opinion is split in the ravenous Pommy press. Can we write about one of the most incredible sporting tales of the year? Will it glorify violence? Why is he so openly speaking about it when it would have just been easier to trot out the line it was in the past?
“I just like honesty,” Peake says.
“It’s me. I guess I got out of the (Rebels) club from being honest as well. It’s hard to kick someone that’s honest, and it’s just my view and it’s my life. It’s my story. I’m not essentially embarrassed about it. It’s something that I’ve done. I’ve owned it.”
How a Northern Irish crowd besotted with Rory McIlroy react to a heavily tattooed Australian with a dark past he’s emerged from is anyone’s guess.
Peake has been paired with LIV Golf’s Phil Mickelson for the opening two rounds of the Open. Picture: GettySource: AFP
The R&A clearly have a sense of humour, pairing Peake with LIV Golf disrupter Phil Mickelson for the opening two rounds.
If walking onto the first tee of your first major playing alongside Phil is daunting, how about being crammed into a cold and concrete confinement for your crimes? Plucking up the courage to ask the Rebels if you can leave their chapter when you get out because you want to play golf? Figuring out how to actually do shopping again? Pay bills? Trying to hit a little white ball for the first time?
“It was pretty shit,” Peake says of the latter. “I mean it went forward, but a lot’s come since then.”
But the reaction from his peers has been far more emphatic this week.
Peake, 31, credits Min Woo Lee coach’s Ritchie Smith for saving his golfing career when he rang him while he was inside.
Lee has spent the majority of the week with Peake learning the nuances of this brutal and beautiful links golf course.
Peake celebrates with the New Zealand Open trophy earlier this year. Picture: GettySource: Getty Images
On Tuesday (BST), Peake also spent time with his former Australian junior teammate Cameron Smith and veteran Marc Leishman in a practice round.
“People think it’s just normal and he’s just playing golf, but there must be something that he deals with every day,” Lee says. “I guess he has this amazing story about him, but he still wants to play good golf. He thinks the story doesn’t matter if he doesn’t play good golf.”
Says Smith: “It’s awesome. He’s a great guy. He got himself into strife, but it’s good to see him out here playing golf for one, but turning his life around is the main thing.”
Where he is allowed to golf is still up in the air.
Peake has now hired a manager, Matt Cutler, after his New Zealand Open win earlier this year garnered worldwide attention and helped him earn status on the lucrative DP World and Asian Tour. Cutler has applied for three visas so far, three successes.
Ryan Peake celebrates his Sandbelt Invitational win. Photo: Paul ShireSource: News Corp Australia
But bigger logistical hurdles await, particularly in the United States, the epicentre of professional golf, and more sensitive parts of Asia.
“We will help him as much as we can,” Asian Tour boss Cho Minn Thant says. “There are no issues from a management perspective and I think all the players treat him as a fellow competitor. He’s easy to get along with.”
Of all the shattering tales he’s already told of how his life once unravelled, the most jarring might have been when his mum told him she was relieved the day he stepped foot in prison. It was because she finally knew where he was each night.
Peake’s fiancée Lee and his parents will arrive at Royal Portrush to watch The Open, safe again in the knowledge he’s made it to a place his talent deemed he should be – with the help of a little British passport.
“If I wanted to pull out this week because I didn’t feel right or thought, ‘this isn’t for me’, that wouldn’t bother (my family) one bit,” Peake says. “They would just want whatever I want, and they’d be happy with that.”
