Ryan started playing golf at the age of nine. His dad took him to play at Southwest Golf Course with a friend’s golf clubs. He remembered that he shot 118 his very first round.
His first tournament win was in 1988 in the nine-hole division of the Tascosa Country Club junior club championship. He shot 46-44-46 for three rounds. That was only the beginning.
Junior Golf was a great time in Ryan’s life. He loved the game and loved to compete. He played almost every Northern Texas PGA one-day event that he could, winning several and having some other good finishes. Some highlights during that time were runner-up finishes in the Texas-Oklahoma Open in Wichita Falls and the Dr. Pepper Junior Classic in Amarillo.
Ryan’s career really didn’t get started until high school. Growing up, he loved other sports, especially basketball and baseball. He was told he wouldn’t get to play that much his junior year in basketball, so he dropped basketball and decided to focus on just golf. Looking back, Ryan thoroughly appreciates the honesty of his high school basketball coach! His junior year was the first year he just played golf and that’s when Ryan started really improving and dreaming that one day he could play on the PGA Tour. He finished 2nd at the Amarillo relays and won in Tyler, Texas his junior year (1994). That same year, he finished 2nd at the regional tournament and 2nd at Texas 5-A State Tournament.
In 1995, Ryan signed with University of North Texas on a golf scholarship. During his freshman year, he had several top 15 finishes and that year won the Southland Conference Championship as a freshman. He was then given the opportunity to transfer and play at his favorite school while growing up, Texas A&M University. He transferred in the summer of 1996 to Texas A&M under Coach Bob Ellis and played three wonderful years as an Aggie. During his years there, Ryan was selected to the All Big 12 Team three times and won two tournaments while at A&M, the Louisiana Classic and the Border Olympics. During college, he also played in two U.S Amateurs and one Western Amateur. Ryan won the Southwestern Amateur in 1999. A high light that he’ll never forget happened in 1998 when he qualified for the 1998 U.S. Open Championship at Olympic Club in San Francisco, California. His father, Butch, caddied every step of the way. He played a practice round with Payne Stewart, one of the PGA’s greatest and one of his favorite players throughout his life. It was an unbelievable experience for Ryan.
He graduated from Texas A&M University in May of 2000. It was now time to take the next step, professional golf. He spent the summer of 2000 on the Tightlies Tour where he won twice that summer. He went to the PGA Tour qualifying school for the first time, but did not get through the first stage. He spent the next season playing 14 tournaments on the Hooters Tour and six on the Tightlies Tour. 2001 was a difficult year as a professional, but it pushed Ryan to keep working towards his dream. He missed the PGA Tour qualifying school again and spent the 2002 season on the Tightlies Tour fulltime. Ryan had a breakout year winning three times and losing in a playoff to finish 2nd on the Tightlies Tour. He didn’t miss a single cut and finished the 2002 season on top with $81,000. Ryan then successfully made it to the PGA Tour’s finals stage of qualifying school and finished high enough to get his Nationwide Tour card for 2003. In only his 2nd tournament on the Nationwide Tour, he won the Clearwater Classic (now the New Zealand PGA) in Christchurch, New Zealand, earning $105,000. In 2003, he had five top 5 finishes with three 3rd place finishes, making $286,000 and finishing 6th on the money list. The success on the Nationwide Tour earned Ryan his PGA Tour card for 2004. A DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!
As a rookie on the PGA tour he had some ups and downs, but achieved his main goal for the year when he finished 2nd at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic to retain his PGA card for 2005. Then, dream number two came true when Ryan won the Funai Classic at Walt Disney World with a final round 62 to beat the world’s no.1 player, Vijay Singh, by three shots. Can you believe it? Ryan was the fifth rookie to win on tour in 2004. Then, dream number three came true when he qualified for the 2005 Masters (Augusta, GA).
According to Ryan, “You see…. Dreams do come true when you work hard and believe in yourself.”
“Set your dreams high, work hard and stay focused.”
“Nothing in life is worth having, unless it’s worth working for.”
