Champions, 154th Open Championship
Winners from another special week at Royal Birkdale.
The very best from a sensational week in Birkdale…
Ryan Fox. Links breakthrough weeks often produce Open champions who admit they didn’t initially get it or didn’t adapt fast enough, only for the one to emerge from 156 to acknowledge it took too long to appreciate the depth of satisfaction that comes from contending in the world’s oldest championship. This year’s Champion Golfer of the Year represented a different breed: longtime admirer, first-time breakthrough contender. Little of note could be found in Fox’s nine previous appearances. A T16 in 2019 was also his best work in any major. He emerged from the pack by tying the weekend 36’s record of 130 set by Tom Watson in 1977 and matched by Ian Baker-Finch in 1991, easily two of the best performances in Open history. Fox’s 62-68 came when several far more accomplished players unraveled under Birkdale’s pesky wind direction and extreme tee-to-fringe dryness. At Even par/T52, he went out with Mr. 62x2 Xander Schauffele and posted the third 62 of the week before Sunday’s 68 meant he came from farther back, by position, than anyone in major history. He shattered recent Open tendencies of winners needing to be inside the top 5 or within a few shots of the lead after the first two rounds. Fox didn’t miss a shot on the last six holes when the pressure was greatest and birdied the rota’s toughest closing hole when a quartering wind had it playing more difficult than normal. Fox also overcame one of the cruelest bounces in decades when a nearly-brilliant tee shot at the 241-yard 15th came up a few feet short and finished under the bunker edge. Forced to hack out sideways on 69th hole would have destroyed lesser contenders. “[On course reporters] Radar Riley and Thomas Levet, they were following our group, and I saw them all go up, and if they just look at a bunker and walk past, you know it's okay,” Fox said. “But when they sort of get down and look at it and almost rehearse the shot themselves, I'm like, oh, this is no good. When I got there, it was probably worse than I thought it was or thought it was going to be.” Fox hacked out to the approach then got up and down for a bogey. “I felt a whole lot better walking off that green making bogey that way than probably even if I'd have made par, to be honest,” he said. “That was a pretty pivotal hole for me.” Fox’s heart-on-his-sleeve genuineness and crazy fast play will make this surprise win age better than most. Fox hit more approaches inside 30 feet than anyone else and converted more putts on greens that had more famous players totally flummoxed. Upon hearing Fox posted a 62 on Saturday, Rory McIlroy telegraphed Fox’s potential Birkdale supremacy. “You’ve definitely had to show a lot of variety in your game and in your approach shots,” McIlroy said. “Foxy flights the ball as well as anyone out here.”
Dean Smith. In an era when clueless luggage handlers are the first to congratulate their man or worse, inject themselves into the winning scene, Fox’s bagman dropped in exhausted relief and savored watching his player have the moment of a lifetime. Because Fox does everything fast, the celebration was brief but also gave playing partner Sam Burns first dibs on congratulating the champion, harkening to the days before caddies could buy mansions. Oh, and Smith also sounds like a fantastic caddie who served as a perfect complement to a player in legit major contention for the first time ever. As only a great caddie can.
Sam Burns. Another major, another heartbreaker. And that’s just in June through July, 2026. What a brilliant week for someone who hadn’t planned to be in Birkdale before wife Caroline kicked him overseas instead of sitting on the couch and watching commercials occasionally interrupted by golf. “Just didn’t have my best stuff,” he said. “Didn’t have things go my way. I hit a great tee shot on 17 to end up in an awful lie. Sometimes that’s the way it goes.” The Golf Gods will eventually send Burns one of their ITSYOURTURN coupon codes. If nothing else, for the lovely show of sportsmanship at the last and the inevitable appreciation he’ll develop for links golf after openly admitting last week that it’s not his thing.
Cameron Young. His second Open runner-up finish puts the current Players Champ in good company with other American greats who came so close to winning The Open. Hitting 58 of 72 greens and taking only 102 putts would normally win just about any tournament, especially one on a fast links demanding extreme precision. The Golf Gods must have something special in store for Young after such a crushing loss, only to be exacerbated by waiting two hours and suffering through the winning putt roar as he was warmed up for a playoff. Then for added cruelty, Young flew home in the row ahead of Ryan Fox with the Claret Jug in the overhead bin above. Maybe these close calls and tough blows are setting him up for a win next year at the Old Course? “Obviously I really enjoyed that golf course four years ago,” he said after signing for Sunday’s 64 but before he knew what was coming. “It's really fun. So I'm looking forward to going back.”
Tommy Fleetwood. Expectations reasonably low for the classy son of Southport. Even though it seems like he shoots 68 every day of his life, it was fascinating to hear the collective wisdom in greater Birkdale downplay his chances even with most of the property rooting for him or believing he should win after growing up near a course (that he was not a member at and rarely played). Yet there was Tommy hovering in contention before giving everyone some final-round thrills with birdies at the first and eighth. A dreadful second shot into the downwind 9th green and a poor chip at the 10th killed his hopes. But a crazy ending birdie at the 18th led to the loudest roar of the week and the most satisfying non-win ending possible. “Eighteen was pretty emotional,” Fleetwood said. “This disappointment that I didn’t win today or I couldn’t get it done when I was in a really good position, of course there’s only one person that gets to win it, and my dream of winning The Open will carry on and I’ll continue to chase it. But stuff like that, walking down 18 and the atmosphere out there, that was beyond stuff that I’ve dreamt of.”
Royal Birkdale. The links unveiled its most significant alterations since the original redo almost 100 years ago eventually turned it into an Open rota member. With absurd warmth, baked turf, mild winds (until Sunday), and patchy rough that was a greater a fire hazard than destroyer of wayward tee-shots, the place produced another classic. The changes were never panned except by Robert MacIntyre (doesn’t count), but some left hooks were taken at the modern shaping, including a jab by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. He noted the obviousness of the new work compared to older holes, revealing a keen eye since since superintendent Sean McLean and crew did incredible grow-in work to disguise how recently the changes were made. It took the R&A nine years to return to Birkdale, but given the way the course drove the week’s success in golf and financial terms, don’t be shocked if Royal Birkdale moves into the every-seven-year category of rota venues.
18th hole. Member par-5s converted into par-4s rarely work. Usually since the greens are designed to guard against short iron third shots. Players griped about No. 18’s remodeled landing area and constantly struggled to start tee shots far enough left (perhaps the massive corporate structure threw them off?). But the new bunkering scheme likely never imagined the unusual wind direction or a fairway Stimping nine feet. The finishing hole played +161 for the week. The entire front nine played +172 for the field. “That's all you're seeing, bunkers everywhere,” MacIntyre groaned. While 44% of drives found the fairway, only 33% somehow hit the decent-sized green and the number of players laying farther back (that strategy faded as the week went). Best of all, the 508-yard closer still functioned well enough to allow for two good shots and a putt by the last golfer to play it.
R&A’s Handling Of Bryson. They could have just released this especially revealing angle of his stompfest with a statement and have been done with the Crusher. Instead, they lathered Bryson DeChambeau in kindness by letting him go full-brat for nearly an hour only to label his old school winemaking work “accidental.” Predictably, the R&A was criticized by frustrated fanboys, various Bryson bootlickers, and a disappointing number of “analysts” who revealed themselves as either feckless at their job or worse, as Rules of Golf benders themselves going all in on “nothing to see here.” Here’s the weird part about the R&A hate.
