{"id":9845,"date":"2026-02-25T12:09:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T05:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=9845"},"modified":"2026-02-25T12:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T05:09:48","slug":"former-biker-and-gang-member-back-to-defend-his-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/former-biker-and-gang-member-back-to-defend-his-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Former biker and gang member back to defend his title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Defending champion Ryan Peake will be back to defend the New Zealand Open golf championships that marked his redemption in turning around his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The win at the Open helped the former biker and gang member to reset his spiraling life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a promising amateur career, he turned professional in 2012. Peake later joined the Rebels Motorcycle Club, an outlaw motorcycle club, and was sentenced to prison for assault in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Australian was released in 2019 and made a return to golf, earning status on the PGA Tour of Australasia. He won the New Zealand Open last year and went on to finished second on the tour’s Order of Merit, securing status on the European Tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At age 13, Peake had won the club championship at Lakelands for the first time. In 2009, Peake was runner-up at the South Australian Junior Masters and the Tamar Valley Junior Cup, and won the Tasmanian Junior Open Championship and West Australian Junior Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a 17-year-old, he was chosen to represent Australia alongside Cameron Smith in the boys’ division of the 2010 Trans Tasman Cup, where he helped Australia to defeat New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same year, Peake won the Handa Junior Masters, and made the cut at the Australian Open. He tied for first at the Saujana Amateur Championship in Malaysia the following year, losing in a playoff to Gavin Green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He turned professional in 2012 but everything went south almost immediately. He experienced loneliness and depression while competing, and felt that he had let down his family, friends and coaches. He began drinking heavily and dropped out of playing golf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in prison, he watched Smith winning the Australian PGA championships and that started his desire to re-enter golf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While still serving his sentence, he shot a bogey-free 66 to win the club championship at his home course Lakelands, being allowed to play by special permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He resumed full time golf in 2022 and the New Zealand Open was his first major career win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is going to take a herculean task for Peake to retain his title, facing some of the better names in the Asian Tour in the fray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will be joined by two-time champion Brad Kennedy, fan favourite Brendan Jones, the last Kiwi winner Michael Hendry, as well as former champions Matthew Griffin, Zach Murray, Jordan Zunic and Dimi Papadatos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kazuki Higa<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Defending Order of Merit champion Kazuki Higa from Japan, who was tied second here last year, is the highest ranked player in the field this week at number 123.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season he won the Shinhan Donghae Open and Yeangder TPC in back-to-back weeks in September, and the 30-year-old also posted five other top 10s during the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pavit Tangkamolprasert from Thailand started his 2026 campaign with a very strong statement at the season opening Philippine Golf Championship with a runner-up finish, pushing the eventual winner Cho Wooyoung from Korea all the way to the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pavit, historically a slow starter to his seasons, then followed it up with another T2 in a playoff loss to compatriot Danthai Boonma on the All Thailand Tour a week later. He will be a player to watch alongside Chinese Taipei\u2019s Wang Wei-hsuan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Taiwanese had a breakthrough season in 2025 and recorded three top-three finishes in a span of a month in September-October, finishing T2 at the Yeangder TPC, third at Mercuries Taiwan Masters and losing a play-off at the SJM Macaco Open to finish a career best ninth on the Order of Merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also won three events on his local Taiwan PGA Tour last year and won that Order of Merit. In his first tournament of 2026, the Philippine Golf Championship in early February, Wang posted a solid T9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also in the fray is Travis Smyth from Australia, who has also gotten off to a fast start of his 2026 season posting a third-place finish at the Philippine Golf Championship and a T5 at the The Quinovic New Zealand PGA Championship on the PGA Tour of Australasia last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smyth has consistently been one of the top performers on the Asian Tour the last few seasons, with an Order of Merit ranking of fourth as his best in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fellow Australian Lucas Herbert, currently playing on the LIV Golf League for the all-Aussie Ripper GC squad, has finished T6 in Adelaide and T9 in Riyadh to open up his 2026 LIV season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herbert claimed his first Asian Tour and International Series win at the International Series Japan presented by Moutai last April, taking that title by five shots. He also has one PGA Tour win on his resume, the 2021 Butterfield Bermuda Championship, as well as two victories on the DP World Tour – the 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the 2021 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. Herbert was runner-up in this tournament to Australian Brad Kennedy in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Zealand\u2019s local hero and Queenstown resident Ben Campbell is also playing on the LIV Golf League, for the Range Goats GC team. He has finished joint second in his home national Open twice, in 2023 behind winner Brendan Jones from Australia and in 2017 losing in a play-off to another Australian in Michael Hendry. Campbell is a two-time Asian Tour and International Series winner, claiming the 2023 Hong Kong Open and the 2024 International Series Morocco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Austen Truslow is the most recent winner teeing it up this week, after taking the trophy at the Quinovic NZ PGA Championship just a few days ago in difficult conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans Kevin Na and Nick Watney, both five-time winners on the PGA Tour, are also in the field this week, as is former PGA Tour player Kyle Stanley, also from the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event will also see a number of celebrity contestants including surfing legend Kelly Slater, tennis great Ash Barty, cricketing icons Stephen Fleming and Ricky Ponting, plus dual-black and broadcaster Jeff Wilson, as well as All Blacks favourite Israel Dagg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Zealand basketball legend Tom Abercrombie and Hollywood actor Michael Pe\u00f1a will also serve as official New Zealand Open Ambassadors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defending champion Ryan Peake will be back to defend the New Zealand Open golf championships that marked his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-9845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-golf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1.jpg",1092,612,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1-768x430.jpg",640,358,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1-1024x574.jpg",640,359,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1.jpg",1092,612,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1.jpg",1092,612,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ryan-Peake-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9848,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845\/revisions\/9848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}