After scaling golf’s mountaintop, Ryan Fox soaks up realities of his British Open Championship
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
It’s 5.30 on a still dark but warm Florida morning, and New Zealand sport’s man of the moment – damnit, the year, and it won’t be close – Ryan Fox is pacing his neighbourhood, unable to sleep, with so many thoughts racing through his head as he contemplates a golfing achievement he never thought possible, and an aftermath fast becoming every bit as daunting as needing to birdie the last hole to win his first major.
So the newly crowned Champion Golfer of the Year, the quaint title they give to the winner of the Open Championship, aka the British Open, the last of golf’s four majors for the year, takes the call from The Post to reflect on what he now knows wasn’t just the realisation of a dream, but an event that is set to change his life forever. For the record, he did birdie that final hole at Royal Birkdale, coolly slotting a 3.5-metre putt to shade American Cameron Young by a shot, and finish on 10 under.
The 39-year-old son of an All Blacks legend, who has been described as the ultimate Kiwi “good bastard” in the wake of his landmark achievement, chats away literally until the sun comes up, some 40-odd minutes later. He’s in the southeast Florida coastal town of Jupiter, in Palm Beach, a spot favoured by the golfing community (and Michael Jordan) for its warm climate, lack of state taxes and proximity to dozens of world-class courses. But he feels a bit like he’s on the other Jupiter. Or at least another planet.
“I’ve got seven hours of international media scheduled over the next two days … I’ve thrown round life-changing win a couple of times, maybe after Wentworth (his breakthrough DP World Tour victory at the 2023 BMW Championship), and after Canada or Myrtle Beach (the US PGA Tour victories he posted last year), but this is going to do it properly,” he reflects as wife Anneke and their two girls still snooze blissfully nearby.
Read More:
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How Ryan Fox celebrated a life-changing $5.5m win and delighted Kiwi punters
A worthy champion: Fox keeps his cool in a nerve-jangling Open finish
Rankings soar, President’s Cup spot – the upshots of Fox’s victory
“It’s probably still dawning on me what happened, and what it means. It’s still a little bit surreal when it pops into my head. I just won the Open. I won a major. That doesn’t feel real yet, even though I’ve got the Claret Jug (the storied trophy awarded the tournament’s winner) and I’ve talked about it non-stop for the last 36 hours. It still doesn’t quite feel real.”
What is real is what it all means. Aside from the $5.5 million in prize-money, a start at the Open till he turns 55, and five years’ exemption at the other three majors, that is.
Not only is there global notoriety – everybody now wants a piece of this everyman Kiwi turned weaver of golf fairytales – but living legend status in his own country. Fox is just the third Kiwi male to win a major. Sir Bob Charles did it in 1963, at the same British Open tournament, and Michael Campbell outduelled Tiger Woods in a memorable 2005 US Open triumph. Dame Lydia Ko, who excitedly video-called her compatriot mid-celebrations at Birkdale, has also won three on the women’s side.
“It is going to be very different going forward,” adds Fox who is trying to fit a flying visit home in his tightening schedule. “There’s probably some nerves around what some of it entails. There’s going to be a lot more interest, a lot more scrutiny … more pressure too but I think I can talk my way out of that in my own head.
“Regardless … you can’t take away Sunday. You can’t take away how I played down those last few holes. I watched a bit of it back last night. I went out and earned that. No one gave that to me. I hit the shots I had to hit down the stretch. I’m not quite sure how I did it. I don’t know how I had the nerve to do it. But at the time it kinda felt like I was in control of it, somehow.
“That’s also going round my head a little bit … where did that come from? if I’d tried to put myself in that position on Monday I’m not sure I could have taken the club back. If I think about it now, I almost feel more nervous than I did at the time. I’m still trying to process how that works and all the emotions around that.”
Fox is drained. Mentally and physically. He knows that. It’s why he’s taking three weeks off now to effectively get back to planet earth. His victory allows him that luxury, effectively returning for the start of the PGA Tour’s “playoffs” run at the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis (August 13-16), and on to the BMW in St Louis and Tour Championship in Atlanta which follow. Then the President’s Cup in late September, which he’s now a dead-set cert for, to tick off another item on his bucket-list.
“First I need to process what has actually happened, and then I need to be like, ‘what the hell is next?’ I’m going to lean on my team and my family for how to deal with that. The next couple of weeks is going to be enjoy being the Champion Golfer of the Year, get used to hearing that, and get used to everything that comes with it.
“My caddie (Dean Smith) probably said it best on Sunday night after a few wines. He goes, ‘Foxy, you might only ever have one putt to win a major in your career and you f…in’ holed it!’ I’ve reached the mountaintop. Now I’ve got to climb back down it to figure out what I’m going to do next.”