Johnston and Puig on Haskins Preseason List

Sun Devil juniors Ryggs Johnston and David Puig have both been named to the 2022 Haskins Award Watch List, announced by Golf Channel, as ASU joins Texas Tech, Pepperdine, and Oklahoma State in having two team members on the list.

The Fred Haskins Award, the oldest individual college golf award, is given to the most outstanding player in NCAA Men's Golf. Florida State's John Pak took home the award in 2021.

The award presented by Stifel has been given to players who have captured 32 major championships and more than 400 professional tournaments around the world. Past recipients include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw, and Justin Thomas.

"From the day they arrived David and Ryggs have been inseparable", coach Matt Thurmond said of the two. "Now they are on the Haskins Watch List together."

Thurmond praised Johnston and Puig's work ethic and sportsmanship with one another as a major part of their success.

"They both work so hard, play with incredible passion, and make each other better," Thurmond said. "I hope we can see their name on this trophy along with Billy Mayfair and Phil Mickelson."

Johnston (17) and Puig (10) are two out of the four Sun Devils in the Top 40 of Golf Channel's preseason rankings.

In his career at ASU, Johnston has a 70.84 stroke average through 17 tournaments. He has seven top-10 finishes including a 3rd place finish in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Johnston rounded out his sophomore season rankings 26th in Golfweek and 21st in Golfstat.

After shooting 63, Johnston finished the course seven strokes under par at the NCAA Championship round. That finish ranks second in Sun Devil history and is two strokes better than Phil Mickelson's run in 1992.

Fellow junior David Puig was named a second-team All-American this past season. Puig finished the 2020-21 season with a 70.29 stroke average and won the 2021 Southwestern Invitational and Amer Ari Intercollegiate in back-to-back weeks.

Puig has seven top-10 finishes which include two wins in 2021. During his freshman season, he only competed in four tournaments before the season was cut short due to COVID-19. After competing in 11 tournaments his sophomore season, Puig finished 11th in Golfweek and 19th in Golfstat rankings.

ASU will enter this upcoming season as the top-ranked program in the Sun Devil Athletic Department, sitting at No. 3.

Stanford (10) and Washington (22) are the other Pac-12 teams to rank in Golf Channel's preseason's top 30.