Ryan Fox was a worthy, but unexpected winner of The Open Championship.
Entering the championship ranked 55th in the Official World Golf Rankings, Fox became the lowest-ranked winner of The Open since Darren Clarke won the Claret Jug in 2011.
It’s the 39-year-old’s first major championship win, and his third PGA Tour win ever. His highest-ranked finish in a major before Royal Birkdale was T19 at the US Open last year.
This is a reward for a lifetime of hard work, and you’d do well to find a more popular winner of this year’s Open beyond hometown hero Tommy Fleetwood. This is particularly special after Fox admitted he once came close to giving up golf for good.
Ryan Fox says he nearly retired from golf before winning The Open
Fox is a late bloomer in professional golf, winning his first PGA Tour event in 2025. He won twice that year at the age of 38. Until 2024 he was playing on the DP World Tour, and he spent a number of years on the Challenge Tour and the Australian Tour.
It was back then, playing in Australia, where Fox considered quitting golf for good. Speaking after his Open Championship win, he said, “My second year on the Aussie Tour, I was pretty close to giving it up. I think I had three events left in the season, and I was not enjoying it.
“I played well enough in pro-ams to make a little money, but I had not played well on Tour, and I was well outside keeping my card.
“I remember getting to the Aussie Masters at Royal Melbourne. It was the second-to-last event of the year. I had just missed the cut at the Aussie PGA badly. My dad came over and caddied for me, and he said to me, why do you play this game?
“And I said, ‘Well, it’s supposed to be fun.’ But it wasn’t really very fun at the time. He goes, well, let’s just go out this week and try to have some fun.
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“I think I finished fifth that week, and that made enough to keep my card for the year. Took the pressure off the rest of the year, and I came back the following year and played really, really well. Yeah, that was — I was very close to giving it up at that point.
“Why it’s a slow burn? I don’t know. I was a rookie on the DP World Tour at 30. I was a rookie on the PGA TOUR at 37 and now a major champion at 39. I’m definitely not following the trend at the moment. But if I can keep getting better a little bit every year, I’ll be pretty happy.
“I said it earlier; if you’d have given me my career up till yesterday when I first turned pro, I would have jumped at it. Now I probably would have k—-d people for it.”
Fox’s win is a story of persistence, not only over the course of his career, but in the tournament itself. His win was the largest 36-hole comeback in men’s major history, as he shot a 62 on Saturday to get his name in contention.
Never giving up is the lesson from Birkdale.
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