Ryan Ruffels is looking to build on his first top 20 finish on the Challenge Tour when he tees off this week in the Kaskáda Golf Challenge at Kaskáda Golf Resort.
The Australian, who has spent most of his life in America, finished in a tie for 19th place at the Andalucia Challenge de Cadiz last week having missed the cut the previous week at the D+D Real Czech Challenge.
The 25-year-old admitted to feeling more comfortable in European surroundings as the week went on, and he’s hoping to continue in the same vein this week on an undulating Czech course.
“I feel like my game started to take shape throughout the week”, he said. “I struggled a little early in the week and was a little uncomfortable, but I was able to get through those points, and gradually improved. I never had that one low round that vaulted me up the leaderboard but I started to play solid throughout the week.
“I'm feeling excited about being able to build on that. I've got some more opportunities out here over the next few weeks and months, and it'll be fun to see if I can follow that up.
“I’ve never played the course here before but it looks hilly. It's beautiful out here though with the countryside and it looks like it's in fantastic condition.”
Ruffels turned professional at 17 having impressed as an amateur, and despite suffering setbacks along the way, including a back-injury that derailed his 2022 campaign, he’s in a confident mood as he looks to add more playing opportunities to his schedule with a place on the DP World Tour the ultimate aim.
“The goal is to play my way in to some sort of status”, he said. “To continue playing for the rest of this season and then get my DP World Tour card at the end of the year would be amazing.
“I'm obviously going to have to play well, and there's a lot of great players that I'm around. They're going to make it hard for me, but that's ultimately the goal.
“The first goal would be to get some longevity out here, so I can continue to play past my invites because I love being out here. I've checked the schedule and there's some pretty cool places coming up that I'd love to play.”
The first round of the Kaskada Golf Challenge gets underway on Thursday at 7:30am local time, with Ruffels teeing off at 9:10am alongside Aman Raj from India and Czech amateur Louis Klein.
