Ryan Fox wins The Open and his first career major with a birdie on the final hole
Ryan Fox won the 154th edition of The Open after a finish that kept Royal Birkdale in suspense until the final stroke. The 39-year-old New Zealander holed a birdie putt from approximately three and a half metres on the 18th green and completed the tournament on 19 July 2026 with a total score of ten under par. That put him one stroke ahead of American Cameron Young, who had completed an outstanding final round of 64 several hours earlier and set the clubhouse lead at nine under par. Fox played the final day in 68 strokes, two under par, and won one of the four biggest tournaments in men's golf for the first time in his career. With the victory, he also became the first New Zealander since Bob Charles in 1963 to lift the Claret Jug.
The final putt was the culmination of a comeback that had developed throughout the weekend. After the first half of the tournament, Fox was far from the centre of the battle for the title, but he shot a 62 on Saturday and tied the lowest score ever recorded in a single round of a men's major championship. That performance took him to eight under par, only two behind then-leader Sam Burns, so he entered Sunday in the final group with a genuine opportunity to achieve the greatest success of his career. According to official data from The Open, Burns began the final day with a two-stroke advantage over Fox and Si Woo Kim, but the leaderboard quickly tightened. At one point, several players were separated by only one stroke, and the final decision came in the most demanding possible setting: the final hole of the final major of the season.
A putt for the Claret Jug on the 18th green
Fox reached the 18th hole tied with Young at nine under par, while Burns was one stroke behind and still had a theoretical chance of forcing a playoff. The New Zealander struck a powerful drive into the middle of the fairway and then sent his second shot onto the green, leaving himself a putt of approximately 12 feet, or about 3.6 metres. Sky Sports published footage of the moment in which Fox calmly read the line, sent the ball towards the left side of the hole and made it for birdie. Because Burns was unable to respond with an eagle, the title was decided without a playoff. Fox raised his arms, while the stands surrounding the final green greeted the new Champion Golfer of the Year with loud cheers.
The putt was even more impressive because of the difficulty of the closing hole in Sunday's conditions. According to reports from the tournament, birdies on the 18th hole were rare, and it was precisely there that Young dropped a stroke after finishing in a fairway bunker. The American nevertheless nearly holed the ball directly from the bunker, saved bogey and signed for a 64, the best round of the day, with seven birdies and only one dropped stroke. His nine-under-par total long appeared sufficient at least for a playoff. Fox, however, turned Young's clubhouse lead into another runner-up finish in a major with his final stroke and secured victory with a total of 270 shots.
Four birdies in the final six holes
The path to the final green was not linear. Fox lost his rhythm at the beginning of the second half of the round and fell behind the leaders after a bogey on the 11th hole, while Young, Si Woo Kim, Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood and Burns were within reach of first place at different stages. According to the final-round coverage published by The Guardian and Golf Channel, Fox responded with a birdie on the 13th hole and then took advantage of a good position on the par-five 14th to reduce the deficit once again. On the short 15th hole, he struck the front wall of a deep bunker and had to accept a bogey, causing him to slip behind Young again. Instead of allowing that shot to unsettle him, he responded with a birdie on the 16th and once again tied the score at the top.
The 17th hole brought another test of patience. Fox's tee shot finished in a fairway bunker, in an awkward position that did not allow him to take a normal stance. He extracted the ball back towards the fairway and then hit his approach to a distance from which he could attack for birdie, but the putt stayed beside the hole. Par was still enough for him to reach the final hole tied with Young. Fox made birdies on the 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th holes over the final six holes, alongside a bogey on the 15th, a crucial run that allowed him to take control of the tournament just as the other contenders began making mistakes.
Young's charge from an earlier group and Burns's decline
Cameron Young began Sunday outside the leading group, but his aggressive charge turned the final day into a race that the entire field had to follow. Seven birdies took him to the top, and only a bogey on the 18th prevented him from finishing at ten under par. His 64 was six strokes better than the course par and the lowest score of the final round. After submitting his scorecard, Young had to wait for events to unfold, knowing that he had posted a score that would have been enough to win in many finishes. Fox was the only player able to go one step further.
Burns, on the other hand, began the day at ten under par and with a two-stroke advantage, but he was unable to maintain the control he had held after 54 holes. An early birdie was followed by a series of mistakes on the front nine, while several missed opportunities on the way back to the clubhouse left him without an answer to Fox's late surge. He completed the round in 72 strokes and finished at eight under par, two behind the winner. Third place was a worthy reward for a week in which he had also recorded a historic 62, but it simultaneously emphasised how quickly a lead on a links course can disappear under the pressure of the final day.
Si Woo Kim also briefly held the outright lead at ten under par after a birdie on the sixth hole. The South Korean golfer remained in contention until the second half of the round, but consecutive mistakes and missed opportunities on the closing holes dropped him to six under par. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler and local favourite Tommy Fleetwood finished at seven under, three strokes behind Fox. Lucas Herbert, another player who shot a 62 during the week, finished at six under. The congested leaderboard demonstrated how open the finish had been: several players had a genuine opportunity to win the title, but only Fox managed to combine accuracy, patience and a closing birdie at the decisive moment.
Saturday's round of 62 changed the entire tournament
Without Saturday's score, Fox probably would not even have been part of Sunday's title story. His 62 on the par-70 course represented eight under par and a tie for the men's major championship record. After the round, the PGA Tour stated that Fox had climbed through the leaderboard thanks to exceptionally accurate play and ended the day at eight under par. A score of 62 holds a special place in Royal Birkdale's history because South African Branden Grace became the first player to achieve it there in a men's major in 2017. Nine years later, the same number was recorded three times during the 154th Open: Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns did it on Friday, and Fox followed on Saturday.
The official website of The Open stated that Herbert, Burns and Fox had joined Grace on the list of record holders at this championship. Royal Birkdale thereby once again confirmed the paradox of links golf: a course surrounded by dunes, deep bunkers and shifting winds can be extremely punishing, but in favourable conditions it allows the world's best players to produce historically low scores. Fox's round was not merely a statistical curiosity. It completely transformed his position, moved him from the group of players attempting to secure a strong finish into the final group and created the psychological foundation for Sunday's charge. A day later, that momentum proved sustainable even under the greatest pressure.
The greatest title of his career had been years in the making
Fox's victory did not come without previous success, but it significantly surpassed everything he had achieved before. According to his DP World Tour profile, the New Zealander won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on courses around St Andrews in 2022, followed by the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2023, one of the most important tournaments on the European tour. During the 2025 season, he also broke through on the PGA Tour with victories at the Myrtle Beach Classic and the RBC Canadian Open, winning both titles in playoffs. Those experiences demonstrated that he could make decisions under pressure, but a major required an even higher level of endurance over four days.
Fox represented New Zealand at three Olympic Games, and before Royal Birkdale his best result in a major was a tie for 16th place at The Open in 2019 at Royal Portrush, according to his official profile on the championship website. That means he had not recorded a single top-ten finish in the biggest tournaments before this week. In Southport, he did not merely improve that personal record, but skipped every intermediate step and won the title outright. In doing so, he proved that a player in his late thirties can reach the peak of his career after a long period of adaptation between different tours, continents and styles of course.
His game is well suited to links golf, which requires the ability to adapt to the wind, low shots, firm ground and unpredictable bounces. Fox had already won on links courses at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, while his previous appearances at The Open had shown that the creativity required on coastal courses suited him. At Royal Birkdale, he added discipline to that range of shots. Particularly important was his decision on the 15th hole, where he did not attempt an unrealistically risky shot from the bunker, but limited the damage to a bogey and preserved his chance of recovering. Precisely that type of risk management is often the difference between a contender and a winner at majors.
New Zealand's second Claret Jug after 63 years
Fox's triumph occupies a special place in New Zealand's sporting history. Bob Charles won The Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1963 and became the first New Zealander and the first left-handed player to win a men's major. According to the official history of The Open, Charles defeated American Phil Rodgers in a playoff and remained New Zealand's only winner of the Claret Jug for more than six decades. Fox has now become the second player from the country to earn the title of Champion Golfer of the Year. The 63-year gap between the two victories further emphasises the rarity of the achievement.
The connection with Charles is not merely a national statistic. The Open is the oldest men's major, first played in 1860, and winning the title on a links course holds special significance in golf culture. Fox joined a list of champions that includes many of the most influential players in the history of the sport. At the same time, he brought the title to a country with a strong golfing tradition but a significantly smaller player base and market than the United States or the major European countries. A victory at a globally followed tournament can therefore have a broader effect on the visibility of New Zealand golf and on a generation of young players who will view Fox's final putt as one of the defining moments in their nation's sporting history.
Royal Birkdale produces another historic finish
Royal Birkdale in Southport hosted The Open for the 11th time. According to official data from the organisers, no course other than St Andrews has hosted the championship as frequently since Birkdale first entered the rotation in 1954. The list of previous winners at the course includes Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Ian Baker-Finch, Mark O'Meara, Padraig Harrington and Jordan Spieth. Spieth won the previous edition held at the course in 2017 after a dramatic duel with Matt Kuchar. Nine years later, Birkdale once again delivered a finish in which the leaderboard changed from hole to hole.
The course is known for fairways that run between sand dunes and bunkers that often force players to hit backwards or sideways rather than attack the green directly. That architecture was evident in the closing moments of the tournament: Young finished in a bunker on the 18th, Fox had to negotiate awkward positions on the 15th and 17th, while Burns and Kim dropped strokes whenever they missed the optimal side of a fairway or green. At the same time, firm ground and occasionally more favourable winds allowed record rounds of 62. It was precisely this combination of danger and opportunity that created a finish in which a score of ten under par was low enough to win, but no player could count on a secure advantage.
For Fox, however, one image will remain: the ball moving towards the hole on the 18th green, dropping for birdie and turning a tense Sunday into his first major title. After years of victories on different tours, appearances at the Olympic Games and a gradual approach towards the top of the world game, his greatest moment arrived at golf's oldest championship. Royal Birkdale gained a new winner for its long history, while New Zealand found a successor to Bob Charles after 63 years of waiting.
Sources:
- The Open – official final-round coverage, the results of Cameron Young, Ryan Fox and Sam Burns, and the development of the battle for the lead (link)
- Sky Sports – footage and confirmation of Fox's birdie putt from approximately 12 feet on the 18th hole (link)
- PGA Tour – report on Fox's Saturday round of 62 and the men's major championship record (link)
- The Open – overview of the record rounds of 62 at The Open and the historical context of Royal Birkdale (link)
- DP World Tour – official profile of Ryan Fox, previous titles, Olympic appearances and PGA Tour victories (link)
- The Open – historical information on Bob Charles's 1963 victory and his place in New Zealand golf (link)
- The Open – official information on the 154th edition, dates and Royal Birkdale's 11th staging of the championship (link)
- The Guardian – detailed coverage of the closing holes and Fox's run of birdies in the finish (link)
- theScore – final leaderboard and scores of the leading players following the final round (link)