# Unflustered on Royal Birkdale’s Baked Links, Ryan Fox Captures the 154th Open as Tommy Fleetwood’s Home Dream Fades

**By Amelie Fontaine**  \nPublished August 24, 2026  \nUpdated September 9, 2026

> New Zealand's Ryan Fox mastered the baking conditions at Royal Birkdale to claim his maiden major title at the 154th Open Championship, surging past the field with a final-round 68 while local favorite Tommy Fleetwood faltered around the turn.

When chaos gripped the baking fairways of Royal Birkdale on Sunday afternoon, the man standing unmoved in the eye of the storm was 39-year-old New Zealander Ryan Fox. Entering the final round of the 154th Open Championship seven strokes back after an opening 72, Fox engineered the largest 36-hole comeback by position in major championship history. His record-equalling Saturday charge of eight-under 62 laid the foundation, but it was a nerveless, calculated exhibition of links resilience on Sunday that hoisted the Claret Jug into the Merseyside air.

As clubhouse leader Cameron Young nervously awaited a potential playoff in the locker room after bogeying the 18th to finish at nine under par, Fox stepped to the tee of the demanding par-four final hole knowing a birdie would secure the title. The long hole had yielded only four birdies all day, yet the 100-1 outsider pulled driver, launched a 330-yard crackerjack down the center of the fairway, rifled a 175-yard approach into the heart of the green, and calmly converted an 11-foot putt to finish at ten under.

I didn't feel anything for the putt - everything was shaking that much, Ryan Fox admitted after finishing with four birdies in his final six holes. It's not a very comfortable feeling. It's certainly very enjoyable when you see it go in.

For the massive galleries packed along the links, however, the gravitational pull of the day belonged entirely to Southport-born Tommy Fleetwood. Wearing Tiger Woods’ clothing brand and riding an emotional wave of local adoration, Fleetwood electrified the course early. He sparked absolute bedlam on the first hole by draining a miraculous 73-foot birdie putt, added another at the driveable fifth, and dropped an eight-footer at the eighth to reach eight under par—just one stroke off the lead.

The dream of ending England's 34-year wait for a home-soil Open champion felt terrifyingly real until a catastrophic stretch around the turn slammed his momentum into reverse. Standing in the middle of the ninth fairway at eight under, Fleetwood misjudged a gust and over-clubbed from 154 yards, sending his approach flying over the baked green into thick rough on a downhill lie. A rushed chip and a subsequent two-putt bogey triggered a run of three consecutive dropped shots.

Just nine, I hit it in the place that you can't hit it, Tommy Fleetwood reflected, calling the miscalculation a terrible mistake. Then 11, hitting it in the fairway bunker... the spirit of this golf course is you've got to take stuff on, but that just costs you shots.

Despite missing another crucial opportunity with an 11-foot birdie miss at the 14th—which he labeled a nail in the coffin—Fleetwood bounced back with a birdie at the last to sign for a round that placed him in a tie for fourth at seven under, matching world number one Scottie Scheffler. Though the Claret Jug slipped away, the emotional crescendo walking down the 18th fairway offered a mutual display of affection with his home fans that transcended the final leaderboard.

Behind the leading figures, the tournament dissolved into a war of attrition. Overnight leader Sam Burns unraveled after pulling his drive into a ditch on the sixth hole, while Cameron Young lamented a C-plus ball-striking week that nonetheless came within a whisker of forcing extra holes. Ultimately, it was Fox’s unflustered, uncomplicated execution—backed by a lineage of elite New Zealand sporting stock including his All Black rugby legend father Grant and cricketing grandfather Merv Wallace—that rewrote the history books as the lowest-ranked Open champion since Darren Clarke in 2011.

## Sources

- [bbc.com](https://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/articles/c89nv0v1e22o) — original
- [bbc.co.uk](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/articles/cpd3wwxp94vo) — original
- [golfmonthly.com](https://www.golfmonthly.com/news/tommy-fleetwood-reacts-open-near-miss-2026) — original
- [independent.co.uk](https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/golf/tommy-fleetwood-scottie-scheffler-southport-ryan-fox-english-b3017713.html) — original