Unheralded American Ryggs Johnston joined some of the greatest names in golf on the Stonehaven Cup with today’s stunning victory in the ISPS HANDA Australian Open.
The power of sport is embodied by performers like Johnston. The golfer ranked No.954 in the world before this tournament will have rocketed into the 300s with his first four-round victory since high school.
A spot in the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush is his. He has a two-year exemption on the DP World Tour and a soaring self-belief that he has the game to excel.
When he had a moment, he could ogle at the names on the Stonehaven Cup he was holding after a wind and rain swept day at Melbourne’s Kingston Heath golf club. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott and many more names are engraved. Now, so is his.
Johnston’s closing four-under-par 68 kept at bay five ambitious Australians who dearly wanted to win their national Open but had to accept Top 10 positions instead.
Johnston (65-68-68-68) posted an 18-under-par total to win by three shots from Australian Curtis Luck. Marc Leishman and new pro Jasper Stubbs were a shot further back in third.
It was a freezing minus 10 degrees in the middle of the night in his tiny home town of Libby, Montana when Johnston holed his final par putt for his career-changing moment.
“I got a lot of messages from back home. The whole town was watching. It’s something you don’t get other than from small towns,” Johnston said.
“It’s an amazing feeling. I mean just getting a win and hopefully getting into more tournaments and knowing I’ve secured pretty legit status now is great.”
Johnston eagled the opening hole and had five birdies to cover the hiccups of three bogeys. Australians Luck and Lucas Herbert either had a share of the lead or a brief moment in front. Otherwise, it was Johnston atop the leaderboard as the wind gusts and rain swirled for periods.
Making birdie on the par five 14th when out of position and rolling in an 8m birdie putt on the tough par three to follow were the moments when Johnston knew he could win it from there. Three cool pars to finish his round made sure of it as Luck finished with back-to-back bogeys.
It was remarkable from Johnston considering foul weather had cancelled his one chance at a practice round on the layout last Wednesday when the afternoon pro-am was called off.
Not for the first time, Johnston was asked to explain his quirky name.
“Yeah, Mel Gibson’s (movie) character Captain Ryggs, Lethal Weapon,” Johnston said.
“My Dad’s side of the family has a bunch of ‘R’ names and they had to get creative after a while because he had five siblings and a bunch (of names) were off the table.”
Johnston soaked up the company his name is keeping on the trophy.
“It’s just really cool to be in a group with those guys. I mean my career is still really young. I just turned pro in May so I have a long way to go,” Johnston said.
