Ryggs Johnston goes from a tiny Montana town to Australian Open champion: Analysis

A pair of Americans delivered command performances halfway around the world during Thanksgiving week. One was Peter Uihlein, the former U.S. Amateur champion and two-time Walker Cup player, winning by five shots in Qatar on the Asian Tour.

The other was Ryggs Johnston, and well, some introductions might be in order.

Don't get the idea Johnston came out of nowhere when he won the Australian Open — unless Libby, Montana, and its population of 3,725 is anyone's idea of nowhere. He was named after Mel Gibson's character in “Lethal Weapon.”

The best golfer to come out of Montana?

“Hands down, Ryggs Johnston,” Jeff Dooley said with a chuckle, because the best humor is often found in truth.

Dooley is the head pro at Cabinet View Golf Club, which has 250 members who buy passes for a seven-month golf season on an 18-hole course overlooking the Cabinet Mountains, just east of Idaho and south of Canada. He watched Johnston develop and knew there was something special about the way he played, the way he scored.

“I've been saying for a long time, it's inevitable we're going to see Ryggs on TV in a tournament,” Dooley said, perhaps not realizing that moment would keep him up past midnight to see Johnston look unflappable in his three-shot win at Kingston Heath.

“Everybody was just wired, all the golf pros," Dooley said. “There was a huge text stream going across Montana.”

The best in Montana at age 24? A case can be made. The most notable tour professional from Montana was Mike Grob, who won six times on the Canadian Tour and spent one full year on the PGA Tour.

Five months into his professional career, in his second start as a European tour member, Johnston won golf's fifth-oldest championship at the Australian Open to get his name on the Stonehaven Cup along with Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, and more recently Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott.

The Australian Open also was must-see TV further south in Tempe, Arizona, where Arizona State coach Matt Thurmond was never more proud.

Thurmond heard all about Johnston and tried to recruit him when he was coach at Washington, only to learn about that sixth-grade project when the teacher asked students to write down their dream. Johnston's dream: “Go to ASU and play golf.”

Thurmond was hired at Arizona State in 2016 and getting Johnston became a lot easier.

Johnston never won a tournament in college but always was in the starting rotation. He was third at the NCAA Championship in 2021 as a sophomore and finished with four straight top 10s to end his career.

He spent five years at Arizona State because of the COVID-19 pandemic and made good use of his time. The Pac-12 scholar-athlete of the year as a senior, Johnston is a few courses short of a Masters' degree from ASU's Thunderbird School of Global Management.

He finished at No. 17 in the PGA Tour University ranking, which made him exempt for the Canada portion of the PGA Tour Americas schedule, and exempt into the second stage of PGA Tour qualifying this week.

Except that Johnston won't be there, all because the Sun Devil took a pitchfork in the road that involved some of Thurmond's best coaching off the course.

Johnston figured he could try all three stages of European tour Q-school and still get home in time for the second stage of PGA Tour qualifying.

“It was funny because it took me forever to get him to go to the British Amateur,” Thurmond said. “He always said, ‘I’m a U.S. guy.' But it slowly changed. He visited (David) Puig in Spain, played the European Amateur. But I couldn't believe it when he called. I told him why not? Give yourself a chance."

He made it through the first stage in France with three shots to spare. He went to Spain a month later and tied for third in the second stage, and a week later sailed through 108 holes in Spain at the final stage to earn a European tour card.

Two weeks later, he headed Down Under to make his European tour debut in the Australian PGA and tied for 43rd in a rain-shortened event, then went 1,100 miles down the coast to Melbourne for the Australian Open.

The famed Melbourne sand belt was soaked by rain, and Johnston at this point was worn out. He played 10 out of 12 weeks in Canada. He flew to France, came home, spent two more weeks in Spain enduring the pressure of Q-school, came back home and then headed to Australia.

"I really didn’t have any expectations,” Johnston said, “which probably helped me in the end.”

Johnston said he might not have thought about European tour qualifying if not for the encouragement of Thurmond. The coach feels Johnston knew the right path and only wanted to hear some confirmation.

Either way, it couldn't have worked out any better. Instead of coming back to America for the second stage of Q-school, Johnston is at the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, with Max Homa as the defending champion against a field that includes Will Zalatoris, Corey Conners, Thriston Lawrence and Nicolai Hojgaard.

Johnston starts next year with tournaments like the Dubai Desert Classic, which features McIlroy and Jon Rahm. The victory gives him a spot in the British Open at Royal Portrush, his first major unless he can qualify for another before then.

“He's come a long, long way,” Thurmond said. “Of all the people, to think of Ryggs being in South Africa this week blows my mind.”

Still to come by the of the year is a trip home to Libby, the tiny Montana town tucked in the northwest corner that is planning a homecoming for the latest Australian Open champion.

“I’ve got a lot of messages from friends saying the whole town is watching,” Johnston said Sunday. “It’s just really cool to have that kind of support, the thing that you don’t see much other than from small towns.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press