Ryan Fox as big as his father

New Zealand, which only appeared in the men’s Majors list due to Bob Charles’ victory in the 1963 British, the first left-hander to win a major, and the US Open of Michael Campbell, now retired on the Costa del Sol where he has an academy, added another notch in history. Ryan Fox, a golfer who had not passed 17th place in 29 Grand Slam tournaments, lifted the Claret Jug at the British Open at Royal Birkdale (England).

Fox made his debut at the age of 39 in the majors at The Open as they shortened in Southport. It is the most tolerant big for veterans. Above that age, Darren Clarke (2011) and Hendrik Stenson (2016) also did it for the first time. And he introduced his name into the encyclopedias in which his father, Grant Fox, opening champion with the All Blacks of the first World Cup in 1987, already appeared in gold letters. (Results)

A four-meter putt on the 18th hole for birdie He sealed a round of 68 strokes and the most important victory of his life. Fox went crazy. A surprising victory for the fifty-sixth player in the world ranking. Charles won in a 36-hole playoff, the last time this format was used; Ryan evaded a playoff against Cameron Young with that success.

The last day dawned between gusts that reached 30 km/h. While the golfers of the last matches They were warming up on the practice field, Cameron Young showed that despite the toughness of the Royal Birkdale, a 1932 course, you could score. Also Scheffler, who along with Josele Ballester (73 on Sunday), had made three birdies in five holes. Young played the front nine in 29 strokes, equaling Ian Baker Finch’s record in the British which he won in 1991.

The wind was blowing and, curiously, it attacked the contrasts. For four, Sam Burns, Saturday’s leader, had made three consecutive bogeys before the 7th hole; Scottie Scheffler had seen his charge stopped with another error on 13 – then another on 15, a par 3 – and Tommy Fleetwood, the Englishman who was fighting to be the first winner of a British in England since 1969, was out of combat due to two bogeys on 9 and 10. Young’s attack (64), with seven birdies, from a distance, bruised by a bogey on 18, was a permanent asset. After falling into a fairway bunker and hitting the slope with the second shot, he was about to hit it from another trap. He finished at nine under par. He spent more than two hours waiting for it to be worth something. It helped him to be second.

In this situation everything seemed written for Kim, a golfer with sometimes excessive daring. He hasn’t won for three years because he often confuses the strategy. He was leading the tournament alone with 10 under par, but his finish was disastrous. He made four bogeys in the last eight holes to score a 72.

Scheffler finished with bogey (67) and with an insufficient score to reach a tiebreaker, moment when Kim began his blockade. Curious about the number 1 in the world. He hasn’t won a major this year, but he has had three top 10s. In eight of the last nine Majors he has been in the top seven. The regularity of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

A gruesome ending

The par 70 Royal Birkdale has its two par 5s starting at the 14th. That is where the surprise on Young had to occur. Three pursuers arrived at that stretch within one shot: Kim, Burns and Fox. The New Zealander was the only one who took advantage of the first long stretch and gave chase to Young.

The end of this journey, however, is gruesome. And on the next one, the par 3 that has become new on this course, he fell into the bunker attached to the slope with an impossible shot. He even had to play backwards. And he lost his income.

But Fox, winner of two PGA Tour tournaments and four DP World Tour tournaments, He has ‘All Black’ blood and as they say in that ‘tribe’ “champions do more.” He birdied the 16th hole, narrowly missed it on the 17th, and made that three-meter putt to fill the country of five million inhabitants and 23 million sheep with glory.