Convicted ex-bike gang member at golf Open

Media opportunities with golfers do not generally cover gangs and prisons, but Ryan Peake’s path to his major championship debut has been anything but normal.

In fact, when Royal Portrush last staged The Open in 2019, Peake had just completed a five-year sentence for serious assault at Hakea Prison in Western Australia.

A talented junior golfer who turned professional aged 19, a “burnt out” Peake drifted away from the game and joined the Rebels, an outlawed motorcycle gang, when he was 21. How does a promising y o u n g golfer from Perth become a “bikie”? “I was just normalised to it,” said the 31-year-old, who won the New Zealand Open to qualify for The Open at Royal Portrush. “It wasn’t abnormal from where I was from to hang out in that sort of scene with my friends.

“It’s something that I did find love in and I did enjoy it. I was interested in it and I just found something there that I felt like I hadn’t found anywhere else.” (BBC sport)