Well, that was a nail nibbler. When Bob Charles became the first New Zealander to land the Claret Jug back in 1963, he had to do it in a play-off.
At Royal Birkdale last night, it looked like Ryan Fox might have to do it the hard way too. In the end, though, the brilliant Kiwi would do it his way.
A wonderfully executed birdie on the very last hole gave him a one-shot victory over the gallant Cameron Young as the 154th championship went right down to the wire.
“My kids asked me to bring home a trophy for them, and this is about as cool a one as I can bring home,” said Fox after a closing 68 for a 10-under tally. Daddy cool, indeed.
It had been a fascinating, fluctuating finale. For Young, there was a heck of a hang on to endure too.
With a do or die charge that could’ve featured a fixed bayonet, the American, who was seven shots behind overnight leader Sam Burns at the start of the day, romped home with a 64 to set the clubhouse target of nine-under.
It was an extremely early target too. Young teed off some two-and-a-half hours before the final group of Fox and Burns. As he watched affairs at the sharp end unravel, he must have twiddled his thumbs into calloused stumps.
At one point it looked like nobody would catch him. Fox, though, stepped up to the plate and seized his moment like a true champion.
One-over for his first 12 holes, the 39-year-old made a telling thrust with a brace of birdies at 13 and 14 to move into a share of the lead.
Winning an Open ain’t easy, of course. On the par-3 15th, Fox had to come out of the bunker backwards and he leaked a shot to drop off the summit. Young’s aforementioned thumbs were going like the clappers.
Cometh the hour, cometh the Fox. He made a birdie on the 16th and, despite spurning another birdie chance from 10-feet on the 17th, he stood on the 18th knowing another gain would earn him golf’s ultimate silver lining.
That’s easier said than done but a super drive, followed by a beautifully flighted 9-iron to 11-feet set up an Open-winning birdie putt. He gobbled up the opportunity with total authority. Looks can be deceptive, mind you.
“Everything was shaking,” admitted Fox, after joining Charles, Michael Campbell and Lydia Ko on an exclusive list of major golf champions from New Zealand.
“I guess everyone practices on the green and says, ‘you've got a putt to win The Open’. It's not like that in real life. It's not a very comfortable feeling. But it’s certainly very enjoyable when you see it go in.”
Garry Harvey, the Scot who chisels the champion’s name onto the Claret Jug, could finally get engraving. He’s had tougher jobs. This one was a mere seven letters. A magnificent seven, you could say.
In his previous 28 major championship appearances, Fox had never managed a top-10 finish. What a way to end that run, eh?
“It's unbelievable, surreal, crazy,” added Fox, the son of the All Blacks rugby great, Grant.
“I don't have enough words in my vocabulary to explain it, to be honest. I did say to my caddie on the 18th tee that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament, and I'd live with the consequences if I stuffed it up.
“That drive is not a very comfortable tee-shot, so to hit it in the fairway and give myself a chance was huge.”
Young deserved a huge amount of credit for his bold offensive. The 29-year-old, who was runner-up in the 2022 Open at St Andrews, was 10-under for the championship playing the last but he landed in the bunker off the tee and his 6-iron out of the sand clipped the lip of the trap and squirted out right.
His third shot found another bunker at the greenside, and he came close to holing out from there with a heroic effort. The resulting bogey, though, would prove costly in the final analysis.
“I’m proud and I'm grateful that I was the one that made the run up the board today,” he said of his valiant assault.
Burns, the 54-hole frontrunner, got to 11-under early in his round but three bogeys in a row from the fourth let the rest back in. He eventually finished third on eight-under.
As the leaderboard became ever more congested, Si Woo Kim of Korea had a stint at the top before falling away while Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion, and local lad Tommy Fleetwood both threatened before rearing up three shots short in share of fourth on seven-under.
“My dream of winning The Open will carry on and I'll continue to chase it,” said Fleetwood, who began his day with a massive birdie putt on the first that was as long as Lord Street.
For a jubilant Fox, meanwhile, that Open dream had come true.
