Ryan Fox became an unexpected winner of The Open Championship after an incredible weekend performance.
A 62 on Saturday got him into contention out of nowhere, and he followed up with a 68 on Sunday, birdying the final two holes, to claim the Claret Jug.
With that effort over the weekend, he broke a major championship record by doing something that has never been done before in golf’s history.
Ryan Fox makes golf history with a win at The Open
Fox was nowhere to be seen on the leaderboard going into the weekend. He was T52 after 36 holes, but his 62 got him in the mix. His victory was the largest 36-hole comeback to win a men’s major championship in the sport’s history.
His 62 on Saturday, therefore, will go down as one of the best major championship rounds ever played.
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It helped him to the second-lowest closing 36-hole total scores to win a men’s major, after only Collin Morikawa at the 2020 PGA Championship.
Fox also entered the tournament ranked 56th in the Official World Golf Rankings. He is now the lowest-ranked winner of The Open since Darren Clarke won in 2011. Clark was ranked 111th in the world when he won the Claret Jug at Royal St George’s.
Not only was Fox an unlikely winner, but he also had to make golfing history to overcome the odds on the weekend and win his first major.
Ryan Fox reacts to making golf history at The Open
Fox could hardly believe that he’d won The Open when he sank his final putt on the 18th green.
His reaction when speaking afterwards showed just how much it meant to him: “Everything, to be honest. I mean, you do dream of this moment. I don’t know whether I ever thought it was going to become a reality.
“Now it is, and to have my name etched in the history of the game is pretty awesome. I think it’s pretty awesome for New Zealand as well. It’s going to be big down there.
“I appreciate all the support from down there at home. It’s going to be a lot of people pretty sad Monday morning at work after staying up all night to watch. I’m glad it was worthwhile for them.”
You’d do well to find a more popular winner of this historic event, and it’s amazing to see how important it is to him.
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