Ryan Fox wins British Open with birdie on final hole, edging out Cameron Young
SOUTHPORT, England – Ryan Fox hit his tee shot from the final group of the day on the final day of the British Open, started to walk and politely turned to a marshal walking nearby.
“It always this quiet on a Sunday?” he asked.
Nobody at Royal Birkdale seemed to believe the winner could actually come from this group. The two leaders controlled this tournament, yet just a smattering of fans followed along. Small claps. No roars. No, the excitement had to be elsewhere. Yet on a day when so many of golf’s biggest stars faded from the moment, the burly, 39-year-old son of a rugby icon was the one to actually grab the British Open to win his first career major.
And he did it the hardest way possible, heading to the unforgiving, spiteful 18th hole where so many before him handed this tournament away. He launched a driver 330 yards between the bunkers that caught nearly every ball. He hit a 176-yard 8 iron that settled just 11 feet, 7 inches from the pin.
And a man with 19 professional wins across the world but who’s never finished better than 16th in a major? He had the nerve to sink the biggest putt of his life and conquer the title of champion golfer of the year. He heard the roars, finally.
“To cap it off with a putt – everyone practices on the green, I guess, you’ve got a putt to win a major championship, to win The Open. It’s not like that in real life. It’s not a very comfortable feeling. It’s certainly very enjoyable when you see it go in.”
He becomes just the fourth Kiwi to win a major championship, joining Sir Bob Charles (1963), Michael Campbell (2005) and Lydia Ko (three titles).
He won it, shooting a round of 68 on Sunday to finish at 10 under for the tournament, while so many others faded. Cameron Young’s shocking 64 gave him a chance, but he’ll rue the bogey on the 18th hole, or he would have been in a playoff with Fox. Scottie Scheffler gave away his opportunities. Sam Burns shot 36 on the front and never got a stroke back. Si Woo Kim took a solo lead only to shoot an awful 40 on the back nine.
It was Fox who birdied 13 and 14 while the other contenders dropped shots. It was Fox who went to Royal Birkdale’s 16th – the hole that almost nobody birdies – and put it to 10 feet, hitting out of the rough to grab a share of the lead.
And it was Fox who didn’t blink from an awful break into the fairway bunker on the par-5 17th. He just hit an excellent recovery shot and still got up and down for par.
It’s often said that the British Open is the week when the best players truly have to show their full game. There’s no hiding. No stock shots. You have to use every club in your bag. And Fox, the son of All Blacks rugby legend Grant Fox, made his way through Royal Birkdale with beautifully flighted irons, crafty short game shots from frightening angles and some of the fastest pace you’ve ever seen on a golf course.
Fox is indeed the underdog story, a large, barrel-chested ball striker who may just be the strongest player on the PGA Tour. But Fox is far from some nobody. He’s always been a proper player, one who won four times on the DP World Tour before moving to the PGA Tour in 2024.
After falling outside the top 100 in 2025, Fox won an alternate field event, the Myrtle Beach Classic, to get into more events. Then, playing against Burns again in a thrilling, lengthy playoff, he won the RBC Canadian Open.
He’s had a perfectly fine season in 2026, ranking 58th in OWGR and playing in all of the PGA Tour’s signature events, but he was no contender. He entered the tournament with winning odds ranging from 150- to 200-to-1. When he finished his second round at par, he remained eight shots back of the lead.
That was until Fox shot a Saturday 62 in the early wave, tied for the lowest round in men’s major championship history (the third 62 of the week). Suddenly he went from the bottom to the top, teeing off in the final group with Burns, who had a two-shot lead.
On his front nine, Fox seemed stable but unconvincing. He shot par and bogeyed the easily scoreable ninth.
But Fox conquered the toughest holes at Royal Birkdale, the ones nobody else could score on. So while so much of Sunday at the British Open was about hanging on, it deserved to go to a man who tried to win it. To all of our surprise, that man was Ryan Fox: Champion Golfer of the Year.