It ended with a 12-foot birdie on the 72nd hole. Ryan Fox, 39, from New Zealand, strode off the 18th green at Royal Birkdale on Sunday evening as Champion Golfer of the Year. He raised both arms into the grey Southport sky and the crowd on the final hole went completely mad. I was watching from the 17th. I have seen three Opens at Royal Birkdale in my life and I have never heard a noise like the one that came through from that green.
What Actually Happened
Sunday was chaotic in the way that the best Opens always are. Cameron Young, the American who has been the nearly man of the PGA Tour for years, posted a magnificent 64 early in the afternoon and sat on the practice range waiting. His score of nine-under par looked like it might be enough. Briefly, it looked like a lot more than enough.
Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader, fell back. Si Woo Kim gave four shots back from ten-under. Defending champion Scottie Scheffler birdied 16 and then somehow birdied 17 from beside a hospitality tent, but couldn't make the birdie on 18 that he needed. Tommy Fleetwood, who had the crowd roaring all week, birdied 17 and 18 to finish tied fourth to an enormous reception.
And then there was Fox. Playing the back nine alongside Burns, he made four birdies in his final six holes. He birdied 16 to draw level with Young. He walked to the 18th needing birdie at a hole that had produced just five birdies all day. He hit his approach to 12 feet and holed it.
Who Ryan Fox Is
Fox is 39. He is the son of Grant Fox, the former All Blacks rugby player. He had never finished in the top 10 at a major before this week. He arrived at Royal Birkdale ranked 56th in the world, not on anyone's short list of favourites.
He shot 62 in Round 3, tying the major championship scoring record. He came from T52 after Friday. That is the largest 36-hole comeback by position in men's major history. In a week where the world number one, the defending champion, and the reigning Masters champion all had their chances, a 39-year-old Kiwi who had never made a top-10 major finish in 29 previous attempts won it on the 72nd hole.
You cannot script it. That is the thing about The Open. Somebody always wins it who was not on your radar when the week started.
🏆Full result: Ryan Fox -10, Cameron Young -9, Sam Burns -8, Scottie Scheffler -7, Tommy Fleetwood -7.
Full result at theopen.com →Tommy Fleetwood and the Southport Galleries
I want to say something about Tommy Fleetwood because I watched him on Sunday and it was genuinely something. He is from Southport. He learned to play golf in this town. He had the home crowd with him every hole and he responded to it by birdieing the last two holes in a final round at a major under enormous pressure.
He finished tied fourth. It was not enough to win. But the noise he got walking up 18 was the loudest thing I heard all week, and I heard Ryan Fox's birdie putt go in. Southport gave Tommy everything. He gave it back.
What the Week Was Like in the Town
I have now lived through four Open Championships at Royal Birkdale. This one felt different, and I think the weather was part of it. It was warm, genuinely warm, in a way Lancashire in July rarely is. The town felt lighter. Lord Street was packed from mid-morning every day. Birkdale village was operating at a level I have not seen before.
The international crowd was enormous. Kiwis, Australians, Americans, Japanese visitors with proper camera equipment. Southport does not always present itself to the world but during Open week the world comes to it and for eight days the town remembers what it is actually capable of.
It goes back to normal quickly. By Tuesday the grandstands will have started coming down and by the following weekend you would not know it had happened. But it did happen. Ryan Fox held the Claret Jug up on a Sunday evening at Royal Birkdale and 250,000 people across the week had come to Southport to watch it. That matters.
Come Back
If The Open was your first time in Southport, there is more here than a golf course. Lord Street is worth a proper afternoon. The Atkinson gallery is better than most people expect. The seafront is a different experience from the beach at Formby but it is genuinely good on a clear July day.
And if you want to play Royal Birkdale itself, visitor tee times restart once the championship setup is removed. You can book through the club directly. It is not cheap but it is cheaper than Muirfield and the course is better than most people realise until they stand on the first tee.
Plan a return visit to Southport:
Things to Do in Southport →The full Open 2026 guide:
Open 2026 Results and Review →Terry
Chief Editor, SouthportGuide.co.uk. Lives in Churchtown with his wife,
four kids, and Frank the bulldog.
