RYAN PEAKE was just completing a five-year jail sentence for a brutal assault the last time The Open was played at Portrush.
Now, incredibly, the is one of the players battling for the Claret Jug this week.
Peake, 31, was jailed at the end of 2014 after an attack on a rival gangster that left the victim with a fractured skull and two broken arms.
Then just 19, the Australian was joined by at least two other men from Perth-based biker club The Rebels in the assault.
He has always refused to reveal who else was involved and was the only one charged with the crime.
One of them was armed with a bat – with Peake saying that was because they had been warned their target was armed – and had been making threats towards The Rebels.
Speaking yesterday at , Peake said: “He was doing some bad things and we had knowledge of that – and then he made some pretty heinous threats towards us as well.
“So we just went to deal with it and honestly it wasn’t meant to happen like that.
“We were genuinely just going there for a chat, he was probably going to get a couple of punches along the way, and it would have been left at that.
“That sounds harsh, but this person lived the same lifestyle as us. The only way you can get through is to speak that language.
“It just happened to be that the threats that he made towards us were true, and he was armed. It escalated from there. That’s it
“I’m not saying it’s right that I’ve gone and beat someone up. But I haven’t gone and beat up your dad.”;
Peake delivered the first kick and The Rebels rained blows on their victim.
A few weeks later, three unmarked police cars turned up in the car park of the Lakelands Club – where Peake helped out his greenkeeper dad – to arrest him.
He was already a professional golfer by then.
But after a stellar amateur career – where he represented Australia in junior tournaments alongside – he became disillusioned with the game, and decided he loved the “camaraderie”; of the local biker gang.
And despite admitting he found prison life tough, he shows little signs of remorse for the crime that led to him being locked up.
He added: “Jail was bad, real bad.
“Strip naked, take a shower in front of the guards and then you’re crammed into a tiny box with two other guys.
“When they turned out the light that first night I thought to myself ‘What the hell have you gotten yourself into?’
“But if you don’t like the accommodation, don’t make the reservation.
“Look, I did something bad, I’ve owned it and tried to move on.
“I’ve turned my life around, but I don’t want to be looked at as some kind of role model or superhero. I just want to look to the future rather than the past.
“But I don’t hide away from my past. It happened and the best thing I can do is to be honest about it.
Strip naked, take a shower in front of the guards and then you’re crammed into a tiny box with two other guys.
Ryan Peake
“If people want to know how it happened, I try to give them an insight into what my life was like back then.”;
When Peake was coming to the end of his jail sentence he was contacted by his former coach Ritchie Smith, who asked him if he wanted to give golf another shot.
Smith, who has guided Minjee Lee to three Major titles and also coaches her younger brother winner Min Woo Lee, describes Peake as “a real talent”;.
He said: “I had lost touch with Peakey after he left golf and didn’t know what happened to him. That’s not the person I knew.
“I called because I was genuinely worried about him. He’s a good kid. He just f***ed up.”;
Even without his criminal record, Peake would not resemble the average golfer. He is heavily muscled and even more heavily tattooed.
But he showed he could still hit a ball by striping it on the range in front of Smith, and then shot 66 in his first round back at Lakelands.
After working his way through the mini tours, he hit the jackpot in March, winning the Open – a victory that earned him a place in The Open line-up.
He also proposed to his girlfriend that week on a helicopter ride around Queenstown – she said yes – so it is a week he will never forget.
Travelling abroad can be difficult for ex-convicts. But flying to Northern Ireland to join pals Smith and Lee at Portrush presented no problems for Peake, because he holds a British passpost.
He added: “I’ve got that passport because my dad was born in England and his family moved to Australia when he was about three.
“I don’t know which part of England, but he’s still got family there and my parents have been catching up with some aunts and uncles and whatnot before they fly from London over here.
“My record does cause some problems, and we have to jump through a few more hoops than most people when it comes to getting visas.
“My manager is three for three so far, and hopefully he’ll keep up that strike rate.
“But just because I’m in , it doesn’t mean I feel I’ve made it now.
“I’m not there yet, not where I want to be. The first goal this week is to make the cut, play my game and see where it takes me.
“That applies to the future too. I’ve got my card to play over here on the by finishing second on the money list back home, and now I just want people to accept me for who I am.”;
