Keith Tower is a former NBA basketball player who played between 1993 and 1997 for the Orlando Magic, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Milwaukee Bucks. He was a second-string centre. He played a total of 53 games in his career and didn’t reach 100 points. However, he had the honorary distinction of being the most important athlete in the history of Libby, a small town in the state of Montana with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants. Well, since Sunday, even that has been taken from good old Tower…
The most famous athlete now is Ryggs Johnston, who won the ISPS Handa Australian Open in Melbourne yesterday. “My town is so small that every time a car goes by, we know exactly whose it is and who’s driving,” he confessed with a laugh a few years ago to Spaniard Alejandro del Rey. Johnston’s connection, who owes his name to Martin Riggs, the character from Lethal Weapon played by Mel Gibson, with the Spanish Armada is incredible. Between 2019 and 2024, he was at Arizona State University and there he met three different Spaniards: Alex del Rey, David Puig, and Josele Ballester.
Del Rey interacted with him in his final years. They hit it off quickly. “He’s a great guy,” he admits. “He has a peculiar swing, not the prettiest in the world, but everything works, very solid from the tee with the driver, the general rule for Americans, and the truth is he’s a good putter,” he notes. In Australia, he demonstrated this. He was the second-best in the tournament in strokes gained putting. He gained nearly two and a half strokes on the field average.
However, in this particular case, the popular saying that he’s a better person than a golfer applies. “He’s a really good guy, a good student. The last time I went to Arizona, he had gone to a tournament with the Uni and left me his car to go train and spend those days there with Puig. He was very close to David and was practically his chauffeur,” he points out.
Precisely, David Puig is the one who knows Ryggs best. They arrived in Scottsdale at the same time and were together for the four years the golfer from La Garriga stayed at the University. They were inseparable, to the point that they always lived together. “We’ve tried all kinds of living arrangements: roommates, sharing an apartment, Airbnb, at another player’s house… We’ve been everywhere. He’s a genius,” David tells TenGolf.
Puig also highlights his human qualities above his sporting ones. “He’s one of my best friends. Very intelligent. He got top marks in all subjects. He was very good at all sports. As for golf, he does everything well. I wouldn’t say he stands out in anything in particular, but he’s very complete and when he gets going, he doesn’t stop,” he explains.
The relationship between Puig and Johnston is so good that less than a month ago, when the American was in Tarragona to play the Final Stage of the DP World Tour Qualifying School at Infinitum Golf, he stayed one night with Waldo and Andra, David’s parents. Puig doesn’t hesitate to define his relationship with Ryggs. “We were like brothers… I even got my driving licence in the United States with his car,” he says with a laugh.
It’s the powerful connection between the latest DP World Tour winner and the Spanish Devil Armada.
