Ryan Fox is back at his Florida home a day after his extraordinary finish to become New Zealand’s latest major golf championship winner.
In news that may not surprise his growing band of supporters who watched the final dramatic moments at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club, he still hasn’t slept since sinking the putt on the 18th green that he realises will change his life because every time he closes his eyes he thinks, “holy heck, you’ve just won the Open”.
True to form, the 39-year-old – a crowd favourite on the final, dramatic, day on England’s west coast after local hero Tommy Fleetwood fell from contention – still has time for New Zealand’s media and is on a zoom call with 1News.
Popular Kiwi golfer talks about his stunning final round at Royal Birkdale, celebrations, and plans to bring the Claret Jug home. (Source: 1News)
Only hours after his victory, which was celebrated into the small hours before he got on a flight from Manchester to London and then on to Miami, the commitments are already stacking up.
He says he has six or seven hours of international media interviews booked over the next few days but that reliving the greatest accomplishment of his career, one that matches Kiwi Sir Bob Charles’ Open triumph of 63 years earlier, is no hardship. His previous best finish in a major championship was a tie for 19th at the US Open last year.
A laidback and popular figure for his approach to the game and life, a middle-aged bloke with an idiosyncratic swing and an occasionally untucked polo shirt, Fox is well on his way to becoming a Kiwi folk hero.
Here’s how he remembers the final few holes:
“It felt like the whole nation was there with me on Sunday. It felt like the whole crowd was with me as well – for whatever reason, the English fans really jumped on me coming down [the stretch] after Tommy… was out of it at the end.
“They stayed for the last few holes and the atmosphere was incredible. There were a lot of Kiwis there as well – you can always pick a Kiwi accent in a crowd. The whole thing was just surreal, and I just tried to stay in my own little bubble.
“I couldn’t help but notice the atmosphere walking on the 18th green – that was maybe the coolest thing I’ve ever felt until I holed the putt and then that was cooler again.”
The final 11 foot (3.3m) birdie putt to win by one stroke over American Cam Young was the final act of a drama which Fox still can’t get his head around.
Fox started with a 72 and a 68 to make the cut on the even-par number, played his final 36 holes in 10 under and did move not into the outright lead for good until his final stroke.
For many Kiwis watching on television early yesterday morning, it appeared to be one of the great comebacks in major championship history. It literally was. After two rounds he was in a tie for 52nd. No one has won a men’s major from that position.
The man who joins Sir Bob, Michael Campbell and Lydia Ko as New Zealand’s major champions appeared unsure quite how to react once victory was confirmed.
Still clutching his putter, he held his hands aloft before removing his cap, turning to retrieve his ball from the hole and shook hands with his playing partner – a small act of good sportsmanship – before he celebrated with his caddie Dean Smith.
Into a private room at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club
Afterwards, once the presentations and media commitments were done, he celebrated with fellow professionals Dan Hillier, a New Zealander, and Australian Min Woo Lee and his team at a private room at the golf club.
“I don’t know what time we got booted out of there but we got the last rites and were told ‘OK the courtesy car is coming now, you can get on it or you’re walking home’. We took a few back to our place not very far from Birkdale and went int the wee hours of the morning. I was in a car [to the airport] at 4.15 without any sleep.
“I still haven’t had much sleep and I probably look like it too. It was a great celebration. I had to take myself away from it a few times to just chill out and process what the hell has happened over the last 24 hours. I still can’t process it to be honest. It’s going to take a while for it to sink in."
'In many ways, it will make life easier'
Life has suddenly changed for Fox, his wife Anneke and their two daughters.
Winning the Claret Jug earned him $NZ5.5million and guaranteed entrance to future Open championships until he is 55. He jokes today that he wasn't really planning on playing that long but may now reassess. He also gets a five-year exemption from qualifying for the three other majors; the Masters, US Open and PGA Championship.
“In many ways it will make my life easier,” he says. “I know what I’m going to be playing for the next five years. Obviously being in the majors… but in a lot of ways it will probably make my life harder.
“There will be a lot of commitments, a lot of scrutiny, a lot more eyes on. I will be in marquee [playing] groups for the next little while which is a bit more stressful than Thursdays and Fridays usually are so that will take a bit of getting used to.
“At the moment I feel like I’m running blind into it, but I’ll just go with the flow.”
Fox says he will take the next three weeks off and plans to bring the Claret Jug, which will be in his possession until the next Open (at St Andrews), back to New Zealand.
“The plan is definitely to bring it home and parade it around as much as I’m allowed to. We’re still trying to figure out how that works.”
He adds: “I’ve got a replica one which is a little bit smaller and a little bit cleaner as well. I get to keep that. It was an interesting experience carrying them through the airport today. I haven’t had four carry-on bags for a while and they were a bit awkward, but I wasn’t going to check the Claret Jug in and leave it up to chance whether it would make it or not.”
Watch: Moment Ryan Fox claims his first major golf title, TVNZ+
He says he was one of the last to disembark once the plane landed due to the hassle of getting his gear down from the overhead locker.
“Pretty much half the plane said congrats on the way out which was pretty cool and I know there will probably be a bit more of that to come. I know my life is going to change and I’m going to have to get used to a while lot of different things.”
Fox, who hit a course record 62 in the third round on the Saturday – an equal low number for a round at a mens’ championship – says he felt he could win the 154th edition of the event after birdieing the 13th on the final day.
He suffered misfortune on the 15th when hitting into a bunker and getting a bad lie which forced him to scramble sideways but “didn’t miss a shot on the final three holes”.
He took an aggressive approach to the 18th. Needing a birdie to win on what was described as a “brutal” hole protected by fairway bunkers, Fox hit a near perfect drive and backed it up with a near perfect 9 iron to give himself a chance.
“I’ve had putts to win tournaments in the past but absolutely nothing like that putt on Sunday. Legitimately, now thinking back to it, I’m not sure how I made contact with the ball – everything was shaking that much.
“In the moment you just do what you do – you go through your routine and try to hit a putt and hope it goes where you want.
“It’s a putt I will always remember. My caddie Dean probably said it best to me after a couple of drinks on Sunday night – he said, ‘Foxy, you might only have one putt to win a major in your life and you effing holed it’.
“That’s pretty cool. I could have gone through my whole career without having a putt to win a major and I still would have had a pretty decent career.”
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