Ryan Fox arrived at the 18th tee at Royal Birkdale tied with Cameron Young. Only four players had made birdie there all day on one of the course’s most demanding holes. He told his caddie, Dean Smith, that he was going to attack: “I did say to my caddie Dean that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament, and I’d live with the consequences if I stuffed it up.” Fox found the fairway, struck his approach to within 12 feet and made the putt to complete a final-round 68, finish ten under par and win The Open Championship by one shot. “You can’t feel your hands, I know that. I was shaking,” the golfer from New Zealand said after claiming his first major at 39.
The victory completed a journey far removed from the usual timeline of professional golf. Fox first worked with a coach at 18, turned professional in 2012 at 25, became a DP World Tour rookie at 30 and made his debut as a PGA Tour member at 37. Before lifting the Claret Jug, he had come close to walking away and endured seasons shaped by grief, injury, family travel and the struggle to retain his tour card. “I’m definitely not following the trend at the moment. But if I can keep getting better a little bit every year, I’ll be pretty happy,” he said. Fox also became the second New Zealander to win The Open, after Bob Charles, and the fourth major champion from his country.
A family of champions without the pressure to follow them
His father, Grant Fox, played fly-half for the All Blacks and won the 1987 Rugby World Cup. His maternal grandfather, Merv Wallace, represented and captained New Zealand’s cricket team before coaching the side to its first Test victory in 1956. Ryan grew up as the third generation of a family closely connected to elite sport, although at home Grant was simply his father and Merv his grandfather. “Both my grandad and my dad were very supportive of whatever I did. There was always sport there, but no real pressure to succeed,” he recalled on the ‘Life on Tour’ podcast.
One of his earliest memories is of Wallace bowling to him in the garden and teaching him how to recognise spin. He also played with a set of children’s golf clubs that his grandfather may have made from pieces of bamboo and blocks of wood. Fox played cricket, rugby, tennis and golf, but gave up rugby after suffering “too many concussions”. After leaving school, he began studying law and spent several months living a fairly conventional student life. Missing competition led him to visit a golf coach for the first time at 18. He left law, continued entering tournaments and graduated in 2009 with an arts degree in psychology.
The question from his father that prevented his retirement
Fox turned professional three years later, but during his second season on the Australian circuit, his results deteriorated and his money began to run out. After missing the cut badly at the Australian PGA Championship, he called his parents and told them he was thinking of giving up golf. He had not accumulated enough points to retain his card and only a few events remained. Grant travelled to caddie for him at the Australian Masters at Royal Melbourne and asked a simple question: “Why do you play this game?” Ryan replied: “Well, it’s supposed to be fun.”
Father and son approached the week without expectations and concentrated on enjoying the competition again. Fox finished fifth and earned enough money to keep his card. The result relieved the pressure and allowed him to return the following season, when his performances became more consistent. That decision to rediscover his enjoyment extended a career he had been ready to leave behind.
An invitation opens the door to Europe
Fox’s route into Europe began in 2015 with an invitation to play a Challenge Tour event in France. He landed in London, took a train to Calais and travelled on to Saint-Omer, where he finished inside the top ten. He repeated that result in Scotland, earned a place in another tournament in Germany and qualified for The Open at St Andrews. Fox made the cut after playing the final five holes of his second round in four under par and contested the final round alongside Bernhard Langer.
He had planned to return home after The Open, but his management secured another invitation in France and persuaded him to stay. Fox barely practised during the week and won the tournament by one shot, securing his Challenge Tour status. His first title on what is now the DP World Tour arrived in 2019. He won twice on the circuit in 2022 and claimed the BMW PGA Championship one year later, the biggest title of his career at that point.
Grief, injury and life out of suitcases
His professional progress coincided with the most difficult period of his family life. In 2023, while his wife, Anneke, was expecting their second daughter, Margot, both of his parents-in-law were diagnosed with cancer. His daughter was born in May and Fox had to leave for the PGA Championship one week later as his father-in-law’s condition deteriorated in hospital. Before the US Open, he said goodbye while his father-in-law was receiving palliative care, knowing it would be the last time they saw each other. On the ‘Between Two Beers’ podcast, Fox admitted that he handled the grief badly and drank several times during tournament week because he did not know how else to cope. “Golf became an escape,” he explained.
A year later, Fox spent around 30 weeks living out of hotels and suitcases, 20 of them accompanied by Anneke and their daughters, Isobel and Margot. Competing in the United States cost him between $6,000 and $7,000 a week, while missing the cut meant receiving no prize money. A torn labrum in his right hip caused little pain but prevented his body from executing the swing correctly. Fox finished 118th in the FedExCup, just above the threshold required to retain his card, before earning his first two PGA Tour victories in 2025. At Royal Birkdale, he completed that late journey with four birdies over his final six holes and called his family seconds after the winning putt: “You asked me to bring a trophy home, and I am, aren’t I?”.
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