How Ryan Fox beat the breaks at The Open. Plus: A local perspective
Golf Briefing ⛳ | This is The Athletic’s newsletter for the 2026 Open Championship. Sign up here to receive the Golf Briefing directly in your inbox.
Good afternoon and evening! Welcome to our last major championship newsletter of the 2026 men’s season — we understand if you’re just catching up here after the World Cup final.
I’m Alex, and Caoimhe O’Neill will be with us from Royal Birkdale in a moment. The final leaderboard is here, and it looks like this at the top:
- Ryan Fox (-10)
- Cameron Young (-9)
- Sam Burns (-8)
The Jug: Fox wins with epic display of resilience
Ryan Fox, the 39-year-old Kiwi who had never finished better than 16th in a major championship, lifted the Claret Jug on Sunday evening. Somehow, that major history undersells how improbable his victory at The Open Championship felt as his final round was going on.
Fox was in contention all week and played in the final group with Sam Burns, who had a two-shot lead on him (and the field) entering the day. But as the round wore on, Fox looked unlikely to catch the shock leader Cameron Young, who had gotten to -9 with a 6-under 64 that bumped him from a tie for 20th to the clubhouse lead.
As Fox was chasing Young, he endured two of the worst breaks of the day in a three-hole stretch:
- On the 241-yard, par-3 15th hole, Fox’s attempt to access a back-left pin ran into the very front of a greenside bunker, directly up against the face. With no play toward the hole, he went backward with his second shot. Facing an up-and-down for bogey that was still no picnic, Fox got it done to stay within a shot of Young.
- After birdieing the par-4 16th to tie Young at -9, Fox hit an iron off the tee on the easiest hole on the course, the par-5 17th. The baked-out Royal Birkdale fairway then launched the ball forward until it slid into a fairway bunker roughly 325 yards out. With an iron! And the ball was just barely in the sand, requiring Fox to hit it without getting a stance in the bunker. He ultimately missed a birdie putt to remain tied.
Then, Fox steeled himself once more and got it done. On a brutal, par-4 18th hole that played to 0.4 strokes over par for the day, Fox hit a perfect, towering drive into the heart of the fairway, stuck an iron from about 175 yards and made a 12-footer to win it. He did all of this while spending approximately no time over his shots. He just stepped up and played.
Fox’s winning birdie had to be brutal for Young, who went from no real shot to win to favorite status in the span of a few hours. There may have been a bigger heartbreak, though.
His fellow American, Burns, had a two-shot lead entering the day. A run of three bogeys between the fourth and sixth holes cost him that lead, but Burns steadied himself and didn’t make a bogey the rest of the day. The trouble was that he didn’t make another birdie, either.
For the second major in a row, he missed a long but makeable putt on the 72nd hole that would have given him either a playoff or a great chance at one. The 29-year-old had a chance to win each of the past two U.S. Opens.
Burns has lots to celebrate these days, thankfully. If it’s any consolation to him, Fox’s subsequent birdie putt meant he would’ve missed a playoff even had he made his putt.
Other notables:
- Scottie Scheffler wrapped up what will go down as a lost year of his prime (fairly or not) by finishing T-4. The 30-year-old led the field in strokes gained tee to green, but in a throwback to the early days of his reign as world No. 1, his putter held him back from victory. He almost tied Young in the clubhouse, thanks to the majesty of TIO relief.
- Sharing that leaderboard position with Scheffler is Tommy Fleetwood, the overwhelming crowd favorite. One day, hopefully. More on him next.
- Though you might have thought Bryson DeChambeau was in contention because of how prominently NBC’s telecast featured him, he faded early and finished T-14.
- Si Woo Kim led at one point but hit a few too many lousy chip shots on his back nine. He settled for a T-6, still his best showing yet in a major.
Justin Ray has more numbers and notes from the final round. Here’s Caoimhe with a special perspective after a week walking the course.
The Turn: What this weekend meant to locals
Twelve years ago, I was working as an attendant in the players’ parking lot at the women’s Open here at Royal Birkdale when American Mo Martin won the tournament. I put a note on her rental car to say congratulations from all the car park staff.
Fast forward to 2026, and that car park is now where the media center sits — and where I am once again scribbling notes on a Sunday evening. After working long hours in all weather on car parks at Royal Liverpool in 2014, when Rory McIlroy won, and St. Andrews in 2015, when Zach Johnson was the victor, this year I got to work my first men’s Open as a journalist.
The whole experience has been even more surreal than I imagined it would be as someone who grew up in this region of the country.
I was on the media viewing platform of the 18th grandstand when Fox holed that birdie to become a major winner. After 36 holes, Fox was tied for 52nd, meaning his comeback was the biggest by position in Open history.
That was a pinch-me ending to an amazing week in Southport. Seeing the Claret Jug sparkle in the north west of England just feels right to me and so many others.
“There’s a reason that The Open keeps coming back to the north west. … The crowds show up, and they show up in their big numbers,” McIlroy said after his final round.
I grew up in a different part of Merseyside, a town called Birkenhead on the Wirral, not far from Royal Liverpool. When I was 13, we walked along Hoylake Beach trying to steal a glimpse of Tiger Woods during his winning weekend in 2006.
We never managed it, but felt so happy seeing our peninsula come to life. I never saw McIlroy with his trophy there in 2014. But on Sunday, there I was in the mixed zone asking McIlroy a question about the hometown hero Fleetwood, who at one point Sunday was one shot off the lead. McIlroy, whose friendship with Fleetwood spans 20 years, said he and his family were all rooting for Fleetwood. He wasn’t the only one. Fleetwood fever was sky-high every single round.
“The crowds were amazing, and they made it the most special week ever for me, and I can’t thank them enough,” said Fleetwood, who had what 2017 champion golfer Jordan Spieth described as Ryder Cup levels of support for one player.
A win wasn’t to be for Fleetwood, 35, but he came away with even more pride for the place he’s from — and I’m with him on that. Fox said he felt the locals were behind him all weekend, too.
“It was awesome,” Fox said, the Claret Jug sitting beside him.
This part of England put on a show just like it always has, and always will. One of our best colloquialisms around here is the word “boss,” which means really good. I think we can all agree, this has been a boss weekend.
The Links
Featuring several of my favorite ICYMIs from the week:
🖼️ “The point is that DeChambeau has never cared about truth. He cares about the image he projects,” writes Brody Miller. Yep.
🛑 The wildest major championship penalties ever, as compiled by Devon Henderson on the occasion of Friday’s Bryson situation.
🧠 Jordan Spieth goes deep into his golf brain to relive his 2017 win at this same course. Unfortunately, mentally reliving 2017 was the best Spieth could do this week, as he missed the cut, along with a hefty list of other big names.
🏗️ How renovations have changed Royal Birkdale since the Open’s last go-around there, via Gregg Evans. Plus, what does it feel like to play the course now?
The Schedule
No more men’s majors until April, though I know you’ll all be equally scintillated by the FedEx Cup race over the coming weeks. Some notable upcoming golf dates:
- The next major is the AIG Women’s Open, July 30 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in England.
- The next men’s major is somewhere in Georgia on April 8, 2027.
- The next PGA Tour stop is the 3M Open, next week at TPC Twin Cities.
- The Presidents Cup is the week of Sept. 22, at Medinah in Illinois. Brandt Snedeker captains the Americans against Geoff Ogilvy and the Internationals.
For now, you can click to follow The Athletic’s golf staff: Gabby Herzig, Brody Miller, Brendan Quinn, Hugh Kellenberger and Caoimhe, who you heard from here today. Get more from me, Alex, every weekend in The Pulse newsletter.
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