Ryggs Johnston arrived in the Sand Belt region with no expectations.
After all, he is currently the 953rd-ranked player in the world and six months removed from graduating at Arizona State. But he can play. Johnston finished eighth in DP World Tour Q-School earlier this month, thus earning status on the circuit formerly known as the European Tour in 2025.
In his first DP World Tour start last week, at the BMW Australian PGA Championship, he tied for 43rd—not a bad result for someone’s first start. But nobody could have figured that Johnston would contend this week at the Australian Open, in just the second DP World Tour start of his career. Even Johnston did not believe much in himself, especially since the weather in Melbourne prevented the 24-year-old American from playing a practice round at Kingston Heath. He went into this tournament completely blind.
Yet, Johnston went on to win the Australian Open by three shots over Aussie Curtis Luck, a remarkable accomplishment for the young American. He posted a pair of 4-under 68s over the weekend to sit atop the leaderboard at 18-under overall.
“It feels great, just knowing that [I get] more playing opportunities and [I get] into bigger events,” Johnston said.
“It hasn’t quite sunk in yet, but it’s an amazing feeling.”
Johnston becomes the 11th American to win the Stonehaven Cup, the famous trophy awarded to the winner of the Australian Open. And it’s a trophy that has dozens of household names etched into it. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Jordan Spieth—these players not only won multiple majors but also triumphed in the Australian Open. This tournament used to have a tremendous pedigree, so much so that Nicklaus called it the “fifth major” at one point.
“It’s just really cool to be in a group with those guys,” Johnston added.
“I’m just pretty honored to be able to put my name on it now, too, and I’ll cherish this moment forever.”
Johnston has traversed the globe for the past couple of weeks, which makes his win even more impressive. He went from Q-School in Spain back to the United States for less than a day and then to Australia for these two events.
“Honestly, I was just trying to use the last tournament as kind of a warm-up, and then hopefully, I played better in this one and kind of did that,” Johnston noted.
“But as far as winning, I probably didn’t really expect to come out here and win. I just wanted to come out here and play good golf and I just happened to put myself in good position today.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
