New Zealand's Ryan Fox adds to family sporting history after winning The Open to clinch first major championship
The The son of All Blacks fly-half Grant finished ten under par after Sunday's final round
Ryan Fox has won the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, clinching his first major championship.
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The New Zealand national needed a birdie on the 18th hole to finish -10 and clinch victory ahead of Cam Young on Sunday.
The 39-year-old was one of only three players in the final 12 groups to shoot under par on a chaotic final day when Royal Birkdale finally showed its teeth after two days of back-to-back record-equalling rounds of 62.
After Young posted the nine-under target after a best-of-the-day 64 a couple of hours earlier, double figures was the aim for those out on the course.
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Fox headed down the last – Birkdale’s most difficult hole – needing a birdie to overtake the American, for so long the PGA Tour’s perennial runner-up, and hit his approach inside 12 feet.
The son of All Blacks fly-half Grant held his nerve, as he had done all day and punched the air as he became New Zealand’s second Open champion after Sir Bob Charles in 1963.
His grandfather Merv was also captain of the Test cricket team.
Fox started at eight under, two behind, and was never more than one better or one worse all day until delivering the coup de grace at the last – only the fifth birdie on the hole all day – showing a level of composure lacking by some of his rivals.
Playing partner and overnight leader Sam Burns got to 11 under after three holes but dropped three strokes, Si Woo Kim gave back four from 10 under while defending champion Scottie Scheffler and home favourite Tommy Fleetwood both threatened before coming up three short.
A pivotal hole for Fox was the 241-yard par-three 15th when an unlucky bounce left him with an almost unplayable lie under the lip of a bunker.
With very little fuss, in keeping with his no-nonsense approach, he took his medicine, splashed out back down the fairway and made bogey.
It could have derailed many players but he holed a ten-footer at the next for a birdie and was left with two holes to pick up one more and the fact he did it on the last, rather than the par-five 17th, was a nod to his quality.
That had been in evidence the day before when he carded one of three 62s scored this week to put him into the final group for the last day