WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) \u2014 When Ryan Fox rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at Royal Birkdale to win The Open Championship by one shot in Southport, England, it was just past 5.30 a.m. in his homeland and the sun hadn\u2019t yet risen.<\/p>\n
Most New Zealanders woke Monday to a wintry morning and the news their small nation had its fourth major golf champion.<\/p>\n
Those who followed Fox on television throughout the night were able to watch him lift the Claret Jug before heading bleary-eyed but happily to work.<\/p>\n
Sir Bob Charles, who was New Zealand\u2019s first major winner and the first left-handed golfer to win a major when he won the British Open in 1963, is now 90 and watched Fox\u2019s found round in replay at a more congenial hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m watching this in color. In my day, it was all black and white,\u201d Charles told the New Zealand Herald newspaper of the TV coverage. \u201cI\u2019m watching every hole that he\u2019s playing. In my day, they only had about the last three or four holes.\u201d <\/p>\n
Charles praised Fox for the pace at which he plays the game which goes against a modern tendency toward slow play. Fox hesitated for barely 30 seconds over the final putt that allowed him to join Charles, Michael Campbell and Lydia Ko as a major-winner from New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cRyan is a refreshing player,\u201d Charles told the Herald. \u201cHe plays the way the game should be played, the way it used to be played and should be played. And that is: you get on with it, and you don\u2019t spend half an hour lining up every putt.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s hope that Ryan can be a great example of how the game should be played now, even when you\u2019re playing for, you know, $100 million!\u201d <\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s Parliament is in recess. Had it been in session politicians likely would have taken the opportunity to lavish praise on Fox, seeking some of his reflected glory.<\/p>\n
Instead, New Zealanders rushed to social media to praise the 39-year-old Fox, a third-generation sporting champion within his family. His father, Grant Fox, was an All Blacks rugby star and winner of the 1987 Rugby World Cup. His grandfather, Merv Wallace, was a captain of the New Zealand cricket team.<\/p>\n
Fox touched on the family history after his win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great history in our family,\u201d he said. \u201cThe other great thing is I had no pressure on me to follow in any of their footsteps. I don\u2019t know if this tops their achievements, but it\u2019s certainly right up there. I guess there\u2019s no pressure on my kids going forward now!\u201d<\/p>\n
As if in tribute, the New Zealand cricket team completed a match and series win over the West Indies in the Caribbean just hours after Fox\u2019s triumph.<\/p>\n
At Fox\u2019s home course, the Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club, club captain Ian Blair said \u201cyou couldn\u2019t find a nicer guy and more worthy champion golfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur club has been privileged to watch Ryan develop from a fine young man with potential to a champion player and member,\u201d Blair said.<\/p>\n
Club chief executive Ian Chapman told the Stuff news website members will be queuing up to buy Fox a beer.<\/p>\n
Michael Campbell, the 2005 U.S. Open champion, described Fox\u2019s effort as \u201can incredible feat … to beat the world\u2019s best players in a difficult situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to experience that 21 years ago. It\u2019s mind-blowing. It really changes your world and he\u2019s up there with the best players in the world now,\u201d Campbell said on the New Zealand Herald\u2019s Ryan Bridge today podcast.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n
Steve Mcmorran, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) \u2014 When Ryan Fox rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,77,82],"class_list":["post-813584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-international","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}