Short Par 4 The Magazine Issue #2 October 2020 | Page 44

So give me the Back Story on Ryan Rustand . Where did you grow up and where did your passion for golf start ?

I grew up in Northern Virginia in a small town called Leesburg . Well , it was small at the time , it ' s grown quite a bit since then . But I grew up on a lot of land — kind of in the middle of nowhere . Our town had three stoplights . It was great .

I found the game found in early . On the weekend , it was dirt bikes and golf , which was kind of our main passion .

So I found my passion for golf at a pretty young age . My dad was an identical triplet and , two of them , my dad and his brother , played golf a lot . So the four of us grew up playing a lot together . My dad was a member of a really nice club , which was great . So we would all try to take advantage of that as much as possible . So we kind of grew up as a sporting family . And it was just a really big part of our lives going into high school . I was more into extreme sports . I was a very independent guy . And so I didn ' t take golf seriously . It wasn ' t until the senior year of high school that I wanted to make the golf team . And , uh , I didn ' t make it I thought I could , but I was way off .

And then , about a week after I graduated high school , my father passed away . And that was tough for me . That was probably one of the most challenging points in my life . I mean , I know it was the most challenging one . But golf was always there for me . And whenever I was on the course , I felt a little bit closer to him .

And that ' s when I found my true passion for the game . And I wanted to make a career out of it because I