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Ryan Fox birdies the last to win the Open, New Zealand's first since Bob Charles in 1963

New Zealand's Ryan Fox won the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale on Sunday, holing a birdie putt on the 18th for a 68 and a 10-under-par total, one shot ahead of the American Cameron Young. The Guardian reported that he is the first New Zealander to win the Open since Bob Charles in 1963. It was his first major title: he had never finished in the top 10 at a major and missed the cut at the Open in 2025.

The Reuters report in Malaysia's The Star added the numbers. Young had set the target with a 64. Sam Burns was third, with Tommy Fleetwood and defending champion Scottie Scheffler tied fourth after Scheffler bogeyed the last. Fox, 39 and ranked 56th in the world, had equalled the men's major record with a 62 on Saturday, and his win made it 13 first-time Open winners in a row.

“You can't feel your hands, I know that.” — Ryan Fox, via The Guardian

Earlier in the week Al Jazeera had shown how low the scoring was. On Friday Australia's Lucas Herbert and the American Burns both shot 62 on a sun-baked course, and Bryson DeChambeau was given a two-shot penalty for treading down long grass.

How each outlet framed it

  • The Guardian — the emotion of the final putt, and the son of All Black Grant Fox making history.
  • The Star (Reuters) — the leaderboard, the 62 and the run of first-time winners.
  • Al Jazeera — Friday's record-equalling rounds and DeChambeau's penalty.

What we don't know yet: whether Fox can build on it. Before this week he had no top-10 finish in a major.