Ryan Fox proudly assured many New Zealanders would have been up in the early hours of Monday morning local time cheering on their golfer’s newest major champion.
Sixty-three years after Sir Bob Charles captured the 1963 Open Championship and 22-years on from when Michael Campbell denied Tiger Woods victory in superbly capturing the 2005 US Open and Ryan Fox brilliantly holed a 72nd hole birdie putt to capture the 154th hosting of the Open Championship.
Fox, 39, calmly rolled-in his 12-foot birdie putt at the final hole of the Royal Birkdale host course to deny American Cameron Young by a shot in a round of 68 for a 10-under-par victory tally.
Young had finished his round of 64 more than two hours earlier and with Fox coming to the toughest hole on the course that had yielded only four birdies knowing if the New Zealand was to avoid a play-off he had to finish with a birdie ‘3’
LET’S SHARE RYAN’S MOMENT OF HIS GOLFING CAREER ….
As the new-crowned 1⃣5⃣4⃣th @TheOpen @ryanfoxgolfer brilliantly joins the legends of the game in reigning supreme @royalbirkdale
️ SKY
❎ @TOURMISS pic.twitter.com/k4YQetzFMA
— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) July 19, 2026
Fox pounded his closing drive down the middle ahead of hitting his 160-yard approach to just below Young’s second shot landed some 26-feet from the flag from where the Players Champion’s birdie attempt slid by the hole leaving the Kiwi the pride of his nation in rolling-in the victory birdie putt.
Fox triumphantly thrust both arms in delight having claimed the $17.75m tournament at his 12th appearance and with own pay cheque a whopping $3.2m.
The now Florida-based golfer spoke after the formal 18th hole victory ceremony, admitting his nerves ‘where all over the place’.
“It’s unbelievable, to be honest,” he said.
“I still don’t know what to think. My nerves are all over the place. I’m not quite sure how I hit that putt on 18. Look, it is a dream come true.
“I was really happy. I said to my caddie through six or eight holes, I feel a lot better than I thought I would feel right now. Played really solid early, and I had some brush-ups down the stretch. Yeah, to play that last hole how I did, I stood on the tee and said to my caddie Dean, we’re going to try to win this.
“I hit two perfect shots. I’m not sure how I hit the putt. As I said, my hands were all over the place. I was just trying to get it towards the hole somewhere. It’s surreal that it went in.
“And to be named Champion Golfer of the Year has got a pretty good ring to it.”
FOX BRINGS LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD CHEERING WILDLY …..
As @ryanfoxgolfer @SrixonGolf brilliantly end a 6⃣3⃣-year wait to become only #NewZealand second @TheOpen
“And to be named Champion Golfer of the Year has got a pretty good ring to it.”
Read:… pic.twitter.com/spDwNeVTlg
— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) July 19, 2026
Sam Burns, who led by two shots heading into the final round, posted a disappointing closing two-over 72 to finish third at eight-under while World No. 1 and defending Open Champion Scottie Scheffler shared fourth with Tommy Fleetwood at seven under.
Double Masters winning Rory McIlroy ended his majors season signing for a closing one-over 71 for a share of 40th at one-under.
“Yeah, I just sort of stuck in neutral for most of the week,” said McIlroy.
“Obviously shot a good one on Friday to get myself in for the weekend and back in it. Yeah, even par over the weekend is not going to get it done.
“Yeah, I just felt like any time I got a little bit of momentum out there, I seemed to make a bogey. Yeah, just one of those weeks I couldn’t get it going”.
Anyway, Ryan Fox is golf’s newest major champion and huge congratulations to the Kiwi.
