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
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
Trump’s intervention in the World Cup imbroglio, the question wasn’t so ridiculous.
“No,” Darbon said. “I have not received a call from President Trump and we will see what happens from here.”
Apparently, it was DeChambeau who wanted to call Trump.
Had the penalty not occurred, DeChambeau would have been in the final pairing on Saturday, just a shot behind 36-hole leader Lucas Hebert. Instead, he began the third round three back and was still four behind starting Sunday. And hoping he had of rallying ended with a triple bogey on the 11th hole Sunday and he eventually tied for 14th.
DeChambeau did not speak to reporters after any round of the tournament.
McIlroy less motivated by FedEx Cup pursuit
As we’ve written about previously, Rory McIlroy is likely to come up short of the PGA Tour’s 15-event minimum this year, a number required because of his “home tour” status via that DP World Tour that allows him unlimited releases to compete in Europe and the Middle East.
The penalty for coming up short is usually loss of membership, but there is clearly a gray area that McIlroy and the PGA Tour will cite to work something out, although McIlroy said Sunday that the situation has not been resolved.
But after a final-round 71, McIlroy did acknowledge that after winning the Masters each of the past two years and completing the career Grand Slam in 2025, that his pursuit of a FedEx Cup title — which he has won three times — is not as motivating.
He called that assessment “fair” and then elaborated.
“I think it just sort of ebbs and flows,” he said. “There’s been years where I’ve given it maybe more of my attention and years that I haven’t. I guess I’m just at a stage that I have other things that I prioritize.
“The PGA Tour is in a lot of flux at the minute with a lot of their schedule and structure and everything like that. So I think the change where it doesn’t matter where you are in the top 30 going into the Tour Championship, it’s like I just need to be in the top 30 going in there to have a chance to win a FedEx Cup. So why would I care about the first two?
“I sort of came to that decision last year, and I’m just sort of doing the same thing.”
McIlroy was referring to the change to the Tour Championship last year that saw it as a standalone tournament. Tommy Fleetwood won the FedEx Cup by winning the event. All 30 players who make it to the Tour Championship play it as a single event with the FedEx Cup at stake, as will be the case this year.
Last year, McIlroy skipped the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, which he is expected to play this year after taking the next three weeks off.
It has been a bit of an odd year again for McIlroy, who after winning the Masters posted two top-10s but was not really a final-day contender. He tied for 40th at Royal Birkdale.
“This season feels very similar to last season,” he said. “Obviously won the first major of the year, fell off a little bit after that, but still any time you win a major in a year, you have to be pleased about that.
“I haven’t really took the time to enjoy that or celebrate that. Poppy’s [his daughter] got another four weeks off school until she goes back, sort of middle to end of August, so just going to enjoy the summer holidays with her and Erica [his wife]. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most.”
Top finishers book Open returns
The top-10 finishers and ties earn a place in next year’s 155th Open at St. Andrews, meaning Casey Jarvis and Lucas Herbert, who tied for sixth and might not have otherwise been exempt, can take consolation in their high finishes.
Si Woo Kim also tied for sixth. Adam Scott, Russell Henley, Ludvig Åberg, Ryan Gerard and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen all tied for ninth, assuring themselves of another Open appearance just in case.
The top four and ties also receive Masters invites, but runner-up Cam Young, third-place finisher Burns and Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood tied fourth are already in next year’s Augusta field.
Final Open notes
The victory was Ryan Fox’s first top-10 in 29 major championship starts. His previous best finish in nine prior Open starts was T16 in 2019.
He’s the second New Zealand golfer to win the Open (Bob Charles in 1963 at Royal Lytham & St Annes) and the third to win a major (Michael Campbell in 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2).
Fox is 13th consecutive first-time Open winner, the championship’s longest streak of first-time winners that began with with Phil Mickelson in 2013.
At world No. 56, Fox is the lowest-ranked Open winner since Darren Clarke in 2011 (No. 111).
Fox was T85 after an opening 72, marking the lowest position on the leaderboard through 18 holes for a winner at the Open (previous was Mark O’Meara at T62 in 1998).
He’s the sixth Open winner to come back from seven or more strokes after 18 holes, joining: Harry Vardon (11 strokes, 1896); George Duncan (8, 1920); Seve Ballesteros (8. 1979); Gary Player (7, 1959); Mark O’Meara (7, 1998).
The third Open winner to come back from eight or more strokes after 36 holes: George Duncan (13 strokes, 1920); Gary Player (8, 1959).
Joins Xander Schauffele (2024 PGA) as the only players to record a 62 in a major championship and win.