Ryan Fox stayed ice cool at the end of four long and hot days at Royal Birkdale to sink a birdie putt on the 18th and win the 154th British Open by one stroke on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Fox was level with long-time clubhouse leader Cameron Young on nine under heading down the last but played a stunning approach shot and then held his nerve to roll in a 12-footer.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old is only the second New Zealand man to win the Open, following Bob Charles in 1963 at Royal Lytham, and the third to win a major after Michael Campbell’s 2005 US Open.<\/p>\n
His final round 68 gave him a total of 270, with Young, who carded a stunning final-round 64, on 271.<\/p>\n
American Sam Burns, the overnight leader, could only manage a two-over 72 as he finished third on eight under par.<\/p>\n
“Oh, wow. I don’t really know what to think at the moment,” Fox, son of former New Zealand rugby great Grant, said after being presented with the Claret Jug.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got a lot of people to thank. First of all, my family, my wife and kids are in Florida at the moment. I spoke to my kids last night, and they said, bring back a trophy.<\/p>\n
“I think this is a pretty cool one to bring back for them.”<\/p>\n
A compelling final day on the Irish Sea just north of Liverpool began with Burns on top of a tightly-packed leaderboard by two strokes.<\/p>\n
BLASTED INTO CONTENTION<\/p>\n
But as he and the various challengers first threatened and then fell away in a roller-coaster finale over the dunes, it looked as though Young’s 64 would prove decisive.<\/p>\n
Young, who began the day in a tie for 20th, had finished two hours earlier and was hitting balls on the range as a first Open playoff since 2015 looked increasingly likely.<\/p>\n
Fox blasted into contention with a men’s major record-equalling 62 on Saturday — the third 62 of a championship played out under blue skies and light winds.<\/p>\n
He seemed to be wobbling around the turn but found inspiration down the stretch with four birdies in his final six holes. He could only par the par-five 17th after seeing his majestic drive dribble into a fairway bunker.<\/p>\n
That meant a birdie was required on the treacherous 18th, where only four had been made all day, to win outright.<\/p>\n
The fearless Fox then played three shots that will live in his dreams. He smashed his drive down the middle of the parched fairway, then flighted a brilliant approach shot.<\/p>\n
In front of thousands of fans he sized up his putt and sent the ball into the middle of the cup.<\/p>\n
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler finished in a tie for fourth on seven under with home favourite Tommy Fleetwood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Fox stayed ice cool at the end of four long and hot days at Royal Birkdale to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-534054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}