Royal Birkdale’s par-4 finishing hole yielded just nine birdies all weekend at the 154th Open Championship.
The last of that bunch came with a Claret Jug.
Ryan Fox, the 39-year-old Kiwi who stormed into contention a day prior with a record-tying 62, birdied four of his last six holes on Sunday, including No. 18, to capture his first major title by a shot over Cameron Young, whose closing bogey more than two hours earlier ultimately left him with the fourth podium finish of his major career.
“I said to my caddie, Dean, we’re going to take it on, we’re going to try to win, and I’ll deal with whatever consequences happen,” Fox said of his 72nd-hole strategy. “If you hit a bad drive and whatever and make bogey, I probably can live with that than trying to lay up, get in a playoff and make bogey that way.
“Yeah, I probably hit the two best shots of my life.”
A fearless, 330-yard drive down the fairway to set up a perfect 9-iron.
Then a flushed approach from 175 yards to 11 feet, 7 inches.
“I’m not sure how I hit the putt straight to be honest, everything was shaking, trembling,” Fox added. “I know that’s what people practice sometimes, you know, I’ve got a putt to win a major; it’s a whole lot different in real life, I can tell you that.”
When Fox’s ball disappeared, his hands were shaking for a different reason, now stretched toward the sky in triumph.
Ryan Fox. Nerves of steel.
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 19, 2026
That is how you win The 154th Open. pic.twitter.com/M6YxCYEuXA
Fox, whose 2-under 68 capped a 10-under week, is the first New Zealander to win The Open in 63 years, since Bob Charles ousted Phil Rodgers in a playoff just up the road from Birkdale at Royal Lytham and St. Annes. Brian Campbell is the only other male Kiwi to win a major, holding off Tiger Woods at the 2005 U.S. Open, and Lydia Ko owns three major titles on the women’s side.
“I know it’s going to ruin a lot of guys’ Monday mornings,” Fox said, “but I think we punch above our weight a little bit in New Zealand anyway.”
No. 18 was a 508-yard backbreaker all week while playing as the toughest hole on these Southport links. Only 28 birdies were made in four rounds compared to 161 bogeys and 13 doubles or worse. Lucas Herbert’s bogey there on Friday ended his hope of being the first player to ever break 62 in a major. Two days later, it ended a few dreams, including Young’s.
Young arrived on the closing hole on Sunday tied for the lead at 10 under. He had been fuming after a Saturday 73 that knocked him seven shots behind overnight leader Sam Burns, only to storm back with birdies on four of his first five holes. But his drive on No. 18 found a fairway bunker, and Young’s next shot – an open-faced 6-iron from 186 yards out – didn’t come close to clearing the trap’s revetted face, which slapped the ball 45 degrees and about 20 yards to the right and into the fescue.
“I was trying to hit it on the green, to be honest,” Young said. “I felt like I could. I really felt like 10 had a good chance to win the golf tournament. I was just trying to win the golf tournament.”
Young did his best to salvage bogey, nearly holing his fourth shot from the greenside bunker before settling for a closing 64 and 9-under clubhouse lead. But Young waited over two hours just to witness Birkdale’s brute of a finisher treat Fox much kinder.
Burns, who joined Fox and Herbert in tying the 18-hole major record this week with his Friday 62, was undone by three straight bogeys, at Nos. 4-6, a stretch that included some shaky chips and an unplayable on the par-4 sixth after Burns drove his ball into a ditch. Still with an outside chance of getting into a playoff, Burns, playing alongside Fox in the last twosome, notched his 12th consecutive par to close out a final-round 72 and solo third finish, his fourth of T-7 or better in his last six major starts.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who birdied the par-5 17th after wild T.I.O. scenario with a hospitality tent to pull within a shot of the lead, bogeyed the last for 67 and eventually tied for fourth at 7 under with local favorite Tommy Fleetwood. Si Woo Kim, who once led outright on Sunday, slipped to T-6 at 6 under after four second-nine bogeys, including at No. 18.
“My dream of winning The Open will carry on, and I’ll continue to chase it,” said Fleetwood, a Southport native who still owns a house here. “But stuff like that, walking down 18 and the atmosphere out there, that was beyond stuff that I’ve dreamt of.”
Fox couldn’t have imagined what transpired for him Sunday, either. The son of All-Blacks rugby legend Grant Fox, Ryan was a late bloomer – not turning professional until age 25, not getting out on the DP World Tour until 30 and not earning his PGA Tour card until 37. He used to hit it everywhere off the tee, taking years to rein in that wildness, and he nearly gave up the game just two seasons into his time on the PGA Tour of Australasia before barely keeping his card and deciding to press on.
While he entered this week ranked No. 56 in the world with 19 worldwide victories to his name, including a couple Tahiti Opens, Fox had been slipping with only two top-10s this year.
His best Open finish in nine previous appearances? T-16, in 2019.
After 36 holes at Birkdale, becoming this year’s Champion Golfer of the Year seemed even more improbable. Nobody but David Duval at the 2001 Open had rallied to win after sitting T-35 or worse at the halfway point of a major; Fox, having shot 72-68, went to bed Friday night in a share of 52nd.
But Fox responded with the second-best major weekend ever, just one shot worse than Collin Morikawa’s second-half 129 to win the 2020 PGA Championship.
Fox wasn’t in the field that week at Harding Park, having only qualified for nine majors at that point. In his 29th career major appearance this week, Fox, though still without a top-15 to his credit, looked more capable than ever. He didn’t put four rounds together like he thought he’d need to, and he lost more strokes around the greens than all but two of the 156 competitors, something most thought not possible of a champion at Birkdale. But Fox also gave himself plenty of looks, tying Scheffler for the most approaches inside 20 feet (31), and then led the field in putting, gaining nearly 10 strokes in four days.
Most importantly, he remained calm, even when his tee shot nestled against the lip of a greenside bunker at the par-3 15th late Sunday afternoon. Rather than attempt the hero shot or self-destruct, Fox smartly blasted out sideways to 30 yards, then got up and down for bogey by rolling in a 6-footer.
It was a mature play by Fox, who joins Kel Nagle, the 1960 Open winner, as the only players aged 39 or older to have their first career major top-10s be wins.
“When I turned pro, I mean, the goal was just to get on a major tour, to be honest,” Fox said. “I said to my team last night at dinner, if you’d have given me my career up ‘till yesterday when I turned pro, I’d have jumped at that…
“Now, I probably would have killed people for it.”
Fox is known as a fast player – he struck his winning putt Sunday a mere 22 seconds after Burns plucked his ball from the cup – the byproduct of playing quicker-paced sports like cricket and tennis growing up. He once was grouped with Scheffler in Phoenix when Scheffler told him, “Foxy, it doesn’t even feel like you’re in the group.”
After Sunday’s knockout finish at Birkdale, there’s no denying Fox’s place among Scheffler and other names etched on the most coveted jug in golf.