Sam Ryder

Samuel Richard Ryder was born on December 15, 1989, in Winter Park, Florida, and grew up to become a full-time PGA Tour competitor. He attended Stetson University, where he studied finance before turning professional in 2012.

Ryder built his professional career methodically through the developmental tour system. He played PGA Tour Canada in 2014 and 2015, finishing fourth in the 2015 Order of Merit to earn Web.com Tour status for 2016. His breakthrough came in August 2017 when he won the Pinnacle Bank Championship on the Web.com Tour by eight strokes, then finished second in the Web.com Tour's regular season standings to earn his PGA Tour card for 2018. His career-high world ranking of 100 came in March 2024.

Ryder is particularly strong around the greens and with his approach play. He is perhaps best known to casual fans for his third-round hole-in-one at the par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale during the 2022 WM Phoenix Open, a shot that triggered one of the loudest crowd reactions the stadium hole has ever produced, with fans throwing drinks onto the green in celebration. That moment captured the grinding, quietly skilled nature of his career: a player who rarely draws headlines but delivers when the spotlight finds him.

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