Fox steals away with Claret Jug after birdie binge
DeChambeau reportedly wanted to call Trump for intervention; McIlroy's new motivation
Ryan Fox birdies four of the last six including 18 to win the claret jug (Stuart Franklin/R&A via Getty Images)
SOUTHPORT, England — The Champion Golfer of the Year doesn’t mess around. He sees a shot, he hits it. And on the 18th hole Sunday at Royal Birkdale, with a life-changing outcome on the line, he hit three perfect shots in rapid succession to make history.
Ryan Fox, likely on nobody’s pre-tournament favorite list, birdied the hardest hole on the course to win the Open Championship and become the third male golfer from New Zealand to win a major title.
He overtook hard-luck Cameron Young, who bogeyed the final hole hours earlier and awaited his fate, hearing the roars tell him Fox made the putt as he was readying for a potential playoff on the nearby driving range.
“Surreal, to be honest,” said Fox, 39, who won twice last year on the PGA Tour but is a bit of a late bloomer, having not turned pro until his early 20s. “It’s something you dream of. 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.”
Also in today’s DD …
Did Bryson DeChambeau want Trump to intervene in penalty embroglio?
Rory McIlroy’s FedEx Cup motivation ebbs
Who’s coming back to St. Andrews in 2027?
Fox shot a final-round 68 with birdies on four of his last six holes after getting into the final group alongside Sam Burns by shooting a 62 on Saturday. He finished at 270, 10-under par. Fox is the 13th consecutive first-time winner of the Open. He joined Bob Charles, who won the 1963 Open at Royal Lytham, and Michael Campbell, who won the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, as major champions from New Zealand. Fellow Kiwi Lydia Ko has won three women’s major championships.
Fox began the third round playing in the ninth group off and was seven shots behind 36-hole leader Lucas Herbert before equaling the major championship scoring record that had also been shot by Herbert and Burns on Friday.
On Sunday, Fox made one birdie and one bogey on the first nine while Burns, Young and Si Woo Kim jockeyed for the lead.
Burns, who finished second at the U.S. Open last month to Wyndham Clark, was the only player to get to 11-under par for the tournament. But he made three straight bogeys starting at the fourth hole and couldn’t make a birdie the rest of the way, parring the final 12 holes to finish third.
“I was trying hard,” Burns said. “I just couldn’t find them today. Just didn’t have my best stuff. Didn’t have things go my way.”
Burns had a 28-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have tied Young for the clubhouse lead but missed. He tapped in to clear the stage for Fox, who had pounded a 330-yard drive down the middle on the last hole and then hit a 9-iron to 12 feet.
Almost before anyone could get ready, Fox stood over the pull and rolled it in to the cheers of thousands in the grandstands flanking the final hole.
“I hit two shots exactly how I wanted to hit them,” Fox said. “I didn’t feel anything for the putt; everything was shaking that much. I was just happy to hit it somewhat near the hole, and to see it go in was incredible.
“I did say to my caddie, Dean (Smith), on the tee that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament, and I’d live with the consequences if I stuffed it up. To go out there and execute, that drive is not a very comfortable tee shot, obviously, and to hit it in the fairway and give myself a chance was huge.”
Cameron Young reacts when his bunker shot to save par at 18 just misses (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Young, who won the Players Championship this year, played in the final group with Rory McIlroy at the Masters and also won the signature Cadillac Championship at Doral, began the day tied for 20th and was seven shots back of Burns’ 54-hole lead.
A first-nine 29 got Young in the mix and he had a chance to shoot the tournament’s fourth 62 if he make a birdie at the last. But his tee shot found a pot bunker and he topped his next shot into the sod wall and it caromed backwards into the fescue. From there he found a greenside bunker for his third and very nearly holed it to save par. He settled for a bogey that got him to the clubhouse at 9-under par.
“I felt like I had a chance to get the second one on the green,” said Young, who finished runner-up to Cameron Smith in the 2022 Open at St. Andrews. “I kind of had a wide open 6-iron. It was only 160-something yards to the front. So I felt like there was an off chance I could get something on the front edge.
“I wasn’t trying to miss it thin, but did. I was very grateful it got out of the bunker. Then hit a decent third shot but not my best. Then the bunker shot really had a chance. At that point, bogeys become a good score … unfortunately, and proud of the putt I hit.”
It’s hard to fault Young and certainly fair to praise Fox, who birdied four of the last six holes and two of the last three. It was a finish benefitting the Champion Golfer of the Year.
Things didn’t go Bryson DeChambeau’s way again Sunday in T14 finish (Stuart Franklin/R&A via Getty Images)
Pleading his case, Bryson wanted to call Trump?
As wild as the scene was Friday evening at Royal Birkdale when Bryson DeChambeau was docked with a two-shot penalty for improving his line on the fifth hole, it apparently was more bizarre than we were aware.
As part of his nearly 30-minute meeting with R&A officials and rules officials after being told he had violated Rule 8.1 on the fifth hole, DeChambeau reportedly asked if he could call President Trump to see if he could be of any help.
That is some high-level absurdity, there, as DeChambeau seemed to be seeking political intervention similar to the way Trump called FIFA president Gianni Infantino on behalf of U.S. Men’s National Team star Folarin Balogun who had his World Cup one-game suspension reversed after receiving a red card during the U.S. knockout match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Balogun was allowed to play in the U.S. round-of-16 game against Belgium, prompting global condemnation after Trump’s intervention.
DeChambeau is friends with the Trump family and the president is an avid golfer. But did Bryson expect the U.S. president to be an arbiter in a rules dispute for which he would have no authority?
As for the ruling itself, R&A CEO Mark Darbon did an interview with the BBC on Saturday
“It was an unfortunate decision but really clear-cut from a rules perspective,” Darbon said. “So, obviously, our team discussed it. The final decision sits with our chief referee, and we have a responsibility to our championship and to the rest of the field.
“And so, irrespective of which player this affected, it’s the same decision. From a rules perspective, it was clear-cut.”
Darbon declined to discuss the details of the long meeting with DeChambeau, who argued his case both there and on the course, with cameras capturing how agitated he was at the decision.
“It’s fair to say there was some emotion around that, and we will keep some of the aspects of that discussion private,” Darbon said. “There was some emotion, but I empathize with that.
“Bryson has played a great round of golf, is in contention at a major championship. He wants to win the golf’s original major. We were focused on the ruling and making a fair assessment.”
Darbon was asked, in jest, if he had heard from Trump about the penalty. Considering
