A birdie at the 18th hole has given New Zealand's Ryan Fox the biggest win of his career: the 39-year-old took the 154th Open Championship in Southport and with it his first major title.
Fox finished the four rounds at Royal Birkdale Golf Club on 270 strokes – ten under par and one shot clear of American Cameron Young (271). Young's compatriot Sam Burns came third on 272. Southport's local hope Tommy Fleetwood again fell short of a first major: the 35-year-old Englishman shared fourth place on 273 with defending champion and world number one Scottie Scheffler. Rory McIlroy finished in a tie for 40th (279).
A record round as the turning point
Before the weekend, Fox was not among the favourites. That changed on Saturday, when he went out early and birdied half the holes on the course – a 62, eight under par. It is the lowest score ever recorded in 154 playings of the Open. Oddly enough, Fox was already the third player to manage it at Birkdale that week, after Lucas Herbert did so the previous day and Sam Burns followed shortly afterwards.
The course was unusually vulnerable: overcast skies and barely a breath of wind until the closing holes. "When you're out in the morning, when the wind's down around here, there's almost some pressure on to shoot a score," Fox said. Standing on the final tee he had even thought about a 61 – then drove into a bunker.
On Sunday a 68 was enough to carry his lead home. For the win Fox received the Claret Jug, the iconic trophy of the world's oldest major, along with prize money of 3.2 million US dollars (about 2.8 million euros) out of a total purse of 17.75 million dollars.
The two German entrants were not in contention: 21-year-old amateur Tim Wiedemeyer and 22-year-old Tiger Christensen both missed the cut clearly after two rounds.