Ryan Fox happy he adds to family's great sporting history with Open win

Fox's father Grant won the 1987 Rugby World Cup with the All Blacks while his grandfather Merv Wallace captained New Zealand in cricket

Ryan Fox's no nonsense approach to the game was a breath of fresh air compared to others at The Open. Pic: David Davies/PA Wire.

Ryan Fox began his weekend taking money off Shane Lowry in a bet on the All Blacks v Ireland game. By Sunday evening he had joined his country’s most successful sporting export as one of his nation’s greats.

The 39-year-old’s Open Championship victory was a riveting spectacle as the final round unfolded at a sun-baked Royal Birkdale, and the wide-open chase for the Auld Claret Jug gradually narrowed to three men. The golfing narratives of the Americans, Cameron Young and Sam Burns, in contention at the bitter end and desperate to exorcise past near misses, would have made either one a worthy champion. Yet there was something special about watching Fox navigate his way towards a maiden major title.

The simplicity of his “see a shot, hit the shot” approach, his unflappability when great shots went unrewarded, and his sheer nerve to sink that final putt when so much depended on it all contributed to the deserved title of Champion Golfer of 2026.

That birdie putt, from 11 feet, seven inches, was dispatched just 22 seconds after his playing partner Burns had holed out for the par that left him in third place on eight under par. And what a breath of fresh air his non-nonsense game was in a week that had threatened to be undermined by what Rory McIlroy denounced as the performative and attention-seeking behaviour of Bryson DeChambeau following the American's two-stroke penalty on Friday evening.

Following rounds of 72 and 68 that left Fox in a tie for 52nd place at the halfway stage, the Kiwi had signposted his intentions with a third-round 62 that had matched both Burns and Lucas Herbert’s mark of the previous day and expanded the record for the lowest round in a men’s major championship to a seven-way share. It also catapulted him into the leading group for the final round with Burns holding a two-shot advantage.

On Sunday, he joined clubhouse leader Young on nine under with his back-to-back birdies at 13 and 14 and looked to set to continue the run with a wonderful tee shot at the long par-three 15th, only to see it run into a front-green side bunker. Fox did not miss a beat, playing out of the sand back towards the tee box at the hardest hole on the course before taking his medicine with a bogey and moving on. He finished birdie-par-birdie to take out both his rivals and made some sporting history of his own.

“It's something you dream of,” Fox said. “I used to get up in the middle of the night to watch this tournament back home. It was always something that was there. Just to be able to play in it, first up, and now to be an Open champion, to be the Champion Golfer of the Year, it's unbelievable, surreal, crazy. I don't have enough words in my vocabulary to explain it, to be honest.” 

He also joins an elite club of major-winning New Zealand golfers, emulating Bob Charles’ 1963 Open victory up the road at Lytham, 2005 US Open winner Michael Campbell and multi-major women’s champion Lydia Ko.

“To be able to join them is amazing. To have my own little piece of history, too … I don't know if it's something I've dreamed of. I don't know if it's something I ever thought was possible, but we're here now.” 

He can also claim some bragging rights in his own family with his father the World Cup-winning All Blacks fly-half Grant Fox and grandfather a former New Zealand cricket captain, Merv Wallace. Not that Ryan felt he needed to match their status as Kiwi sporting icons.

“We've got a great history in our family. I think the other great thing is I had no pressure on me to follow in any of their footsteps. I was lucky enough to carve my own path there and had support from both my grandfather early on and obviously Mum and Dad through the whole thing.

“I don't know if this tops their achievements, but it's certainly right up there. I guess there's no pressure on my kids going forward now!"

Fox had shared an emotional FaceTime call with wife Anneke and young daughters as he absorbed his achievement prior to lifting the Claret Jug and he paid tribute to his watching loved ones back at their current home in Florida.

“Firstly to my wife, she sacrificed a lot for me to get to this point. Yeah, just for all her support, everything she's gone through with the kids, staying at home, trying to travel with two young kids as well early on. Starting out on the PGA TOUR, that was really hard, and she's an absolute trooper.

“To Isobel and Margot, my two little ones, Dad's got a trophy for you.”