Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: Fox Outfoxes the Field

When Ryan Fox arrived at the 18th tee box of Royal Birkdale Golf Club early Sunday evening, half a world away from his homeland, it was part of a journey that had spanned more than half his life.

Long before his very first New Zealand Open in 2006, Fox's goal was to win The Open, as it is for most young boys playing golf around the world.

And so as Fox stood over his ball, driver in hand, tied for the lead with one hole to go, he had two choices: He could play it safe, make par and take his chances in a playoff, or he could risk everything and go for birdie on one of the hardest closing holes in the Open rota where there had been only four birdies all day.

Three shots later -- undeniably the three biggest and best shots of Fox's life -- victory was his. He had won the Claret Jug as the Champion Golfer of the Year.

The 39-year-old Kiwi piped his drive 330 yards dead center on the par-4, 509-yard behemoth, then lofted a "solid nine" to 11 feet 7 inches and, barely taking any time over the ball after his playing partner had finished, drilled home the tournament-winning putt.

"I hit two perfect shots. I'm not sure how I hit the putt," Fox said. "As I said, my hands were all over the place. I was just trying to get it towards the hole somewhere. It's surreal that it went in.

"Yeah, Champion Golfer of the Year has got a pretty good ring to it."

Fox followed up his record-tying 8-under 62 on Saturday with a 68 on Sunday to finish at 10-under-par, one better than Cameron Young -- who bogeyed 18 on Sunday. Fox birdied four of his last six holes to complete one of the greatest closing stretches in major championship history. Hard-luck 54-hole leader Sam Burns came up short once again in third place, and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was among those who tied for fourth.

While Fox birdied Nos. 13, 14, 16 and 18, a bogey on the long par-3 15th -- the hardest hole on the golf course Sunday -- will also be remembered. His drive went into a greenside bunker and, with a horrific lie, he had no choice but to chop it out backwards. Now 44 yards from the pin, he wedged it to six feet, where he made perhaps the best bogey putt of his life.

"I had no -- there was no other option than to hack it out how I did 20, 30 short of the green," Fox said. "To get that up-and-down really kept the momentum going obviously. I made a couple of birdies going in. I felt like I made a really good shot on 15 too. It was probably a yard away from being 25 feet away.

"Sometimes bogeys are a good -- 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. I hit a couple of really good shots down the stretch obviously to get it done. I think that was a pretty pivotal hole for me, 15."

Fox has been a pretty fair player in his later years, a five-time winner between the PGA and DP World tours, most recently last year's Canadian Open in a playoff over Burns, his Sunday partner at The Open. Fox had peaked at No. 23 OWGR but entered the week at No. 56 and 200-1 in betting circles. His win moved him to 22nd in the world.

Fox became the second New Zealander to win the Open and the country's third major winner. Left-hander Bob Charles won 63 years ago at Royal Lytham and St. Annes, and Michael Campbell held off Tiger Woods at the 2005 U.S. Open.

Perhaps we all should've seen this coming -- even though Fox had never finished better than 16th in 28 career majors, at the 2019 Open -- because he is part of an incredible athletic lineage. His father, Grant Fox, won the first Rugby World Cup in 1987 as part of the famed All Blacks, and his grandfather, Merv Wallace, was a famous New Zealand cricket player. Both have Wikipedia pages.

Fox will keep the Claret Jug until returning it next year at St Andrews, where he has already won before, at the 2022 Alfred Dunhill Links Championships. But first he will surely take part in his first Presidents Cup, at Medinah in late September.

For now, though, it's all about the Claret Jug, and having his name etched alongside the sport's all-time greats.

Fox said it means "everything, to be honest. I mean, you do dream of this moment. I don't know whether I ever thought it was going to become a reality. Now it is, and to have my name etched in the history of the game is pretty awesome. I think it's pretty awesome for New Zealand as well. It's going to be big down there.

"I appreciate all the support from down there at home. It's going to be a lot of people pretty sad Monday morning at work after staying up all night to watch. I'm glad it was worthwhile for them."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Cameron Young
Young shot out of a cannon hours before the leaders teed off, He birdied four of the first five holes en route to a closing 64. He was the clubhouse leader for more than two hours and for a long time it looked like his 9-under score would hold up. But a closing bogey on 18 proved fatal. Young now has finished runner-up twice at the Open (2022). With this runner-up, plus a third at the Masters and wins at THE PLAYERS Championship and Cadillac Championship, Young can make a compelling claim to be named PGA Tour Player of the Year.

Sam Burns
Burns was the 54-hole leader. He finished third. He was runner-up at the U.S. Open and T7 at the Masters. Burns also was the 54-hole leader at last year's U.S. Open and wound up T7. You could say he blew it again. Or you could say he's coming so close he's maturing as a player and it's bound to happen soon. Both could be right.

Scottie Scheffler
It's incomprehensible that the major season has come and gone without Scheffler winning one. He tied for fourth here, same as at the U.S. Open. He was second at the Masters and 14th at the PGA. Now it's almost August and Scheffler is still stuck on one win. However, he will play in this week's 3M Open, heavily favored to win. And even though some other players have more hardware this season, you could make a case that Scheffler is Player of the Year right now.

Tommy Fleetwood
The sentimental favorite from down the block in Southport, England. Fleetwood gave it a go but tied for fourth -- his fifth top-5 in a major and third at the Open. It's pretty clear that after all these years, and all this success and near-success, Fleetwood is the dreaded "Best Golfer Who's Never Won A Major."

Si Woo Kim
Kim is having his best season on Tour. He had never been good in the majors -- terrible, in fact. But for a brief spell on Sunday, he was leading The Open. However, he collapsed on the back nine with four bogeys for an inward 40, leaving him in a tie for sixth. That's still his best major finish ever, but it seems small consolation right now. In the biggest tournaments this year before the Open, Kim finished T50 at THE PLAYERS, 47th at the Masters, T35 at the PGA Championship and MC at the U.S. Open.

Lucas Herbert
Herbert followed up his record-tying 62 on Friday with a pair of 71s, leaving him tied for sixth. Surely a disappointment. But for the LIV golfer who had done little in a major before, it was a great week.

Casey Jarvis
The 22-year-old South African was playing in just his fourth career major, and third this year. He went MC-T65 at the Masters and PGA, and he tied for sixth at the Open after a brilliant 66 on Sunday. Jarvis has already won twice this year on the DP World Tour, in Kenya and South Africa, and he appears to be a player to keep an eye on. In fact, we can see him this week, as his top-10 got him into the field at the 3M Open. Jarvis is now ranked No. 63 in the OWGR.

Ludvig Aberg
Aberg shot 1-over Sunday when going low would've put him in the conversation with Fox and Young. So it was another Sunday letdown for a player who would get a lot of votes for "Best Golfer Who's Never Won A Major." On one level, Aberg had a great year in the majors, going T21-T4-T17-T9. But it's fair to say more was expected of him.

Adam Scott
Playing in his 101st straight major, what better way to celebrate than with a top-10? Scott closed with a 66 to wind up in a tie for ninth. At 46 years old, it was his seventh top-10 at the Open and second in three years. With a tie for 24th at the Masters, followed by two missed cuts, it was a mixed bag in the majors for Scott.

Russell Henley
Hneley shot 4-under to tie for ninth -- and that included two late bogeys. Only two golfers have had top-10s at the Open the past three years -- Scheffler and Henley. In fact, Henley now has top-10s in six of the past 10 majors. He's not really considered among the greats in the game, but the results say otherwise.

Ryan Gerard
Gerard has three runners-up this season. But the majors had been a different story: T38-T70-MC entering this week. He tied for ninth in his Open debut.

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
This was just Neregaard-Petersen's fifth career major. He tied for ninth, and it was his first top-10 all year. In fact, it was his first top-10 since he won the Australian Open late last year. But the 27-year-old Dane earned a return invite to play next year at St Andrews.

Bryson DeChambeau
If you've made it this far, you've read about 1,700 words. We could do another 1,700 on DeChambeau alone. Look, after missing the cut in the first three majors, after the two-stroke penalty on Friday and all the shenanigans that went along with it, after a great round on Saturday with a bull's-eye squarely on back, DeChambeau had a real chance to win the tournament. Unfortunately, beginning Sunday in a tie for sixth, he didn't go low. He shot a 2-over 72 to drop into a tie for 14th. He can play links golf, he can play golf anywhere. He's that good. But there clearly is a lot of baggage, too. DeChambeau will win another major or more one day, perhaps soon. He just makes things so much harder by bringing so much attention to himself.

Xander Schauffele
Schauffele tied for 18th. That may not sound like much. But it continued an extraordinary run in the majors going back almost five years. In the past 19 majors, Schauffele has finished outside the top-18 just once. This year, he went T9-T7-T11-T18. No, he didn't sniff the winner's circle, really didn't contend at all. Ultimately, that's what matters most to the top players. So as good as it was, he's surely not happy.

Brooks Koepka
Koepka is winding down a deeply disappointing year in which he returned to the PGA Tour. He had just one top-25 in a major -- a T12 at the Masters -- after finishing T28 at the Open. He sits in the 82nd position in the FedExCup Standings and therefore would not be in the playoffs if they started today. He's not playing this week's 3M Open, which means he will have a maximum of two starts to qualify for the postseason.

Robert MacIntyre
MacIntyre tied for 28th after a closing 71. You'd have thought Sunday was much worse, considering the club throwing and code of conduct warnings he received.

Rory McIlroy
McIlroy never got much going -- unless you want to consider his venomous comments toward DeChambeau as getting something going. Otherwise, he tied for 40th.

Jon Rahm
Rahm did a little club throwing of his own, like MacIntyre, He imploded on Sunday with a 74 to tumble into a tie for 46th. After finishing second at the PGA Championship to indicate that LIV had not zapped him of his ability and competitive fire, Rahm went MC-T46 at the next two majors. On to next year, wherever he and LIV may be.

MISSED CUTS

Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, Viktor Hovland, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Tom Kim, Joaquin Niemann, Akshay Bhatia, Maverick McNealy, Cameron Smith, Brian Harman, Aaron Rai, Nicolai Hojgaard, Mason Howell (a), Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale member). In any of the three majors with 156-man fields, a lot of big names will miss the weekend. This week, despite all those names listed here, it seemed to be less than usual. Fitzpatrick was the big shocker, and Clark too. Hovland and Spieth just are not the same players they used to be, even with Hovland's recent win. Rose apparently had a neck injury that was not previously disclosed. Kim seemed ready for a letdown after all he's done of late. Niemann has good weeks and bad, certainly not the M.O. for an elite player.

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