Ex-criminal gang member qualifies for Open Championship in Portrush

“I'm pretty lost for words at the moment, I’ve just changed my life."

Australian Ryan Peake has qualified for the Open Championship in July, after winning the New Zealand Open and banking £99,500.

The 31-year-old is now in a race to secure special clearance to travel to Northern Ireland in July for one of the golf's four majors.

This is due to the fact that he has a criminal record, having spent five years in jail after being convicted of assault in 2014 when he was 21.

Peake had been a stand-out junior player, and even won the Trans-Tasman series alongside the 2022 Open Champion Cam Smith.

However, he quit the game and joined the Rebels biker gang, which is considered as a criminal organisation by the Australian government.

After his one-shot win and final round 66, Peake said: “I'm pretty lost for words at the moment, I’ve just changed my life.

“This is what I do. I want to be here and just play golf. The story is what it is, but I’m just out here playing golf.

"It's one hell of a story, one hell of a moment."

"It’s life changing. I always knew I could do it, it was just a matter of time when I was going to do it.

"My coach, my family, my team, everyone believed. Most of all, I believed as well."

Peake - who is now second in the PGA Tour of Australasia - also shouted out fellow Aussie player Elvis Smylie and his coach Ritchie Smith, who reached out to Peake while he was in prison.

He added: “Elvis Smylie was in the same predicament not too long ago and our coach, Ritchie Smith, said it was going to switch and that you’ve just got to commit to it.

“He had the same chat with me and we set out some goals when I missed the cut at the Aussie Open and the Aussie PGA.

"I think just by getting here, I'd kind of already won, because it was just like another monkey off the back, just getting another stamp on that passport for me

“I can't get a visa to travel here, so I've got to travel on a special direction order.

“It got granted on the Monday but it took three flights from then that I couldn't get on.

“But credit to New Zealand Immigration as well.

I thought I was getting stonewalled and wasn't going to be getting here but they were actually doing everything in the background to get me here.”