Twenty seconds separated Ryan Fox from the moment his playing partner cleared the stage, standing over his putt, taking two practice strokes, then the trigger pulled on the 12 feet between him and forever. He is a fast player, Fox, aspirationally so in a sport besieged by slowness. Why change now? The only pause came to confirm what his eyes already knew, moments later, his arms going up after the ball went down. The roar of 4,000 rolling off the grandstands swallowed his yell, the type of sound someone chases their entire life knowing it may never be conjured.

That’s what it was, conjured. Earned. After staying steady while his round threatened to come apart. After mounting a charge, only to watch it nearly buried by a lie that showed him no mercy. After knowing, somewhere underneath it all, that he wasn’t the kind of player supposed to be contending at a tournament like this, at a time like this. And that the moment, if it came at all, might come only once. His moment is now eternal. A back-nine blitzkrieg and a 72nd-hole birdie have crowned Ryan Fox the Champion Golfer of the Year.

“Surreal, to be honest. It’s something you dream of,” Fox said Sunday evening in Southport, his total of 10-under 270 besting Cameron Young by one shot for the Open Championship. “I used to get up in the middle of the night to watch this tournament back home. It was always something that was there just to be able to play in it, first up, and now to be an Open champion, to be the Champion Golfer of the Year, it’s unbelievable, surreal, crazy. I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to explain it, to be honest.

Fox is something of a late bloomer—he didn’t play competitively until 17—so perhaps it fits that the pattern held today. He played out of the final group with Sam Burns, and for most of the front nine the two idled in neutral. Not damning on its own, but Young was making a move and others were massing behind, and after two bogeys in a three-hole stretch at the turn, it looked like Fox was running on fumes, having burned too bright too early with Saturday’s record-tying 62.

MORE: Steve Williams talks to Golf Digest about winning the Open

And frankly, it made sense. This was not a position Fox had ever occupied. Twenty-eight career major starts entering the week; top-10 finishes in exactly none of them. He is also six months shy of 40, sharing a leaderboard with players a decade and a half his junior, fledgling and established alike.

But the damnedest thing kept happening. Around the 10th, once it became clear the local favourite, Tommy Fleetwood, wasn’t going to pull off the hometown miracle, the entire Royal Birkdale property switched allegiances to Fox. There were Kiwis scattered about, sure, but the Scouse inflexions leaning into “C’MON FOXY” gave it away. This was Fox’s crowd now, and they’d decided to bring him home. The gap in volume between Burns’ 30-foot par save on the 13th and Fox’s 12-footer for birdie was the difference between courtesy and combustion.

“It felt like the English crowd got behind me for whatever reason,” Fox said. “I was trying not to get too caught up in it coming down the stretch, just kind of focus on what I could control.”

David Cannon

Fox added another birdie at the 14th before saving his tournament outright at the 15th. His tee ball had buried against the lip of the bunker, half-plugged in the face, a lie so hostile that advancing it toward the green was never on the table. The only shot available was backward, sideways almost, sacrificing 45 yards just to find grass he could actually swing from. It was the kind of lie that turns a two-shot swing into a four-shot swing in the time it takes to walk up and see it. He managed a nifty up-and-down anyway, emitting the type of fist pump usually reserved for red numbers, for Sundays that end in celebration rather than survival.

“I probably can’t say exactly what I thought,” Fox said, talking about when he saw the bad break. “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.”

Another birdie at the 16th pulled him level for the lead, setting up a final hole that would decide everything. A perfect drive left him 170 yards in. A distance that invites caution, a shot to the fat of the green that plays it safe and takes his chances in a playoff with Young. Fox wanted no part of it. He aimed at the flag instead, betting on himself, at peace with whatever the gamble returned. “I did say to my caddie, Dean [Smith], on the tee that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament,” Fox said, “and I’d live with the consequences if I stuffed it up.”

MORE: One by one, the contenders fell by the wayside on Sunday

His gut was true. So was the strike, evidenced by the roar that went up the moment his ball came to rest 12 feet short. It’s tempting to wave off what follows as revisionist history, embellishment memory adds after the fact, yet his walk from fairway to green produced a reaction reserved for a former champion, a star, a local son. The kind of reception a journeyman doesn’t get and a journeyman is precisely what Fox has spent his career being. Other sports build entire mythologies around the underdog; golf, more often than not, fears him. The romance of the long shot plays better in retrospect than it does in the moment, when a leaderboard packed with recognisable names would rather see one of their own.

Or perhaps it was the opposite. Perhaps the crowd understood exactly what was on the line, and exactly who was putting it there. Major championship moments like this one arrive rarely and without a promise of return. For every player, but especially for Fox’s age and record, the one week in a sea of them that aren’t like this. You don’t often get the chance to watch the best moment of a man’s life unfold in real time. So you make noise. You let him know you see it, that you know what it is, before it’s even finished becoming true.

“Yeah, the reception coming into 18 was, even before I’d hit the putt, was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. Obviously, after making it was unreal. I can’t thank the fans enough for their support. It was awesome.”

The only sound that trumped it came when those 12 feet were closed. Fox would say later he was shaking something fierce. His hands that had no business being steady, given everything they were now responsible for. Somehow they found the line anyway, the ball dying into the centre of the cup, and with it, a claret jug into his grip.

Now, when a player wins a major, we wonder what it says about who he is and where he might go next. With Fox, the more interesting question is where he’s been. He comes from an athletic bloodline: his grandfather, Merv Wallace, was a first-class cricketer; his father, Grant Fox, was a record-setting All Black, a World Cup winner whose name carries weight in a rugby-mad country. Pedigree like that suggests a fast track. Ryan’s path was the opposite. He didn’t turn pro until 25 and spent years grinding on the PGA Tour of Australasia, the golf equivalent of the minor leagues, chasing status one week at a time. He didn’t earn his way onto the DP World Tour until his early 30s, where he collected a handful of titles and enough of a résumé to finally get a shot at the PGA Tour. That didn’t come until he was 37.

Ryan Fox carries the Claret Jug around to the fans. Tracy Wilcox

That alone—a rookie card at an age when most peers are contemplating the back nine of their careers—is a hell of an accomplishment, never mind what came after. Fox has never operated under any illusions about where he sits in the game’s hierarchy. He is not, and has never pretended to be, one of the sport’s chosen few. What he has instead is gratitude for a career that took the long way, and for whatever small, hard-earned part of it he’s been given to claim as his own. “I think the goal was just to get on a major tour, to be honest,” Fox said. “I think I said to my team last night at dinner, if you’d have given me my career up till yesterday when I turned pro, I’d have jumped at that.”

Probably because it almost ended before it began. Fox nearly quit after his second year as a professional. He knew the math was already stacked against him, a late start in a sport that rewards early ones, and the results on the page were only confirming what the calendar already suggested. There isn’t much money on the Aussie Tour, and what little there was cost more to chase than it paid out. He was bleeding savings to pursue something that showed no sign of taking care of the debt. By the second-to-last event of the season, he’d made up his mind. This was going to be it.

RELATED: Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

Then his father showed up. Grant Fox flew out, picked up a bag, and caddied for his son. Somewhere inside those four days, he asked Ryan a question with no good answer to hide behind: what brought you to this game in the first place? Ryan told him it was fun. That it gave him a sense of purpose he couldn’t find elsewhere. But lately, he admitted, the game wasn’t giving him either. His father didn’t offer a fix. He let the answer sit, then gave his son one instruction for the week: Stop trying to save your career, and just try to enjoy playing golf. It sounds almost too simple to work. It did. Fox finished fifth, enough to save his card, and enough to buy himself another year of chasing. He kept going from there. Not because the results ever stopped being uncertain, but because he made himself a promise: he’d keep racing, so long as he never lost sight of what made him want to race in the first place.

“I’m definitely not following the trend at the moment,” Fox remarked about his circuitous career path. “But if I can keep getting better a little bit every year, I’ll be pretty happy.

“I said it earlier; if you’d have given me my career up till yesterday when I first turned pro, I would have jumped at it. Now I probably would have killed people for it.

Fox laughed when he said it. A laugh that only arrives with the truth, the one that admits something a straight face never could. Ryan Fox might play fast, but it took him the long way to get here. All of it, somehow, arrived exactly on time. He leaves Birkdale with his name engraved on the claret jug, now and forever, which is the only length of time golf has ever really promised anyone.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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Steve Williams never did watch much golf. While caddying for Tiger Woods from 1999 until 2011, he was famous within golf circles for flying home to New Zealand when Woods had two weeks off from competition. Williams didn’t even check PGA Tour results, let alone switch the TV on.

But early on Monday morning in New Zealand, Williams, the caddie who helped deliver 13 of Woods’ 15 majors and Adam Scott’s 2013 Masters triumph, broke from habit and turned the TV on as his close friend and countryman, Ryan Fox, birdied the 72nd hole to win the Open Championship by one shot over Cameron Young at Royal Birkdale.

“I’ve had a little bit to do with Ryan, right from his amateur days through to turning professional, and I’ve caddied for him several times at the New Zealand Open,” Williams told Golf Digest via phone from New Zealand. “When you know somebody personally, it’s emotional, for sure.”

RELATED: Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

Williams has another habit: Encouraging tour pros he believes in before big moments. He used to write notes to Woods. He gave Scott a pep talk on the practice putting green prior to the Australian’s runner-up at the 2011 Masters, which set the stage for his Augusta win two years later. Earlier this week, Williams emailed Fox a note of encouragement.

“I was talking with him before the tournament started and he said his preparation went fantastic and he was really looking forward to it,” Williams said. “When he says he’s playing good, he’s going to be there [in the mix] or thereabouts. I just love encouraging the guy. I’ve told him many times, ‘You’ve got the game [to win a major], you’ve got all it takes.’ You just fill the guy with belief and eventually [he’ll win]. I just think he’s an absolutely fantastic person, and he’s an unbelievable player and it’s just fitting that he’s won the Open Championship.

“I was pretty pumped to watch that third round, when he shot 62 and then to go on today and win it, which is not easy [to follow up]. It his dream, it’s every pro’s dream, to win a major. The Claret Jug is, in most people’s opinion, probably the one that they want to win the most. It’s the tournament where most people have the opportunity to qualify. It’s not an invite-only sort of an event.”

Fox, 39, became the first New Zealand winner of a men’s major since Michael Campbell defeated Woods by two shots at the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Williams and Woods waited around to congratulate Campbell that day. Williams said Woods knew what it meant to New Zealand.

“Golf is so difficult,” Williams said. “There are so many great players. Ryan had never finished in the top 10 in a major and this is the first time he’s got a chance and you don’t know if he’s going to get another. So many things have to fall your way each of those four weeks of the year to win a major.

RELATED: Watch Ryan Fox’s incredibly clutch winning birdie putt

“But there were a lot of people, myself included, who always believed that Ryan was going to take that grand step and win a major. In my opinion, the Open Championship was the one that suited him the best. He has a ball flight that and a great imagination around the greens and the hard links golf really suits him. So it comes as no surprise.”

Another thing that didn’t catch Williams off guard was the speed at which Fox played and stepped up to hole his winning putt.

“I’m a little bit shocked myself watching it, but I knew he’d hole that put on the last hole,” Williams said. “That’s the way Ryan operates. He’s like a cat on a hot tin roof. He just can’t stand still. I don’t think anyone, even probably the people in the production truck, could have believed how quick he putted it after Sam Burns holed out. I’m incredibly proud of him and his family.”

Fox won’t be in a rush to return the Claret Jug to St. Andrews for next year’s 155th Open at the Old Course. That’s a 12-month period every Champion Golfer of the Year wants to go slow.

“I hadn’t thought about that, but yeah, that sounds pretty cool,” Fox said, sitting next to the Claret Jug.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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The post The Open 2026: Steve Williams rarely watches golf. But the famed caddie broke habits to see countryman Ryan Fox win at Birkdale appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The great and painful rule on days like these is that everyone has to fall. They’re raindrops on a car window, waiting for gravity and accumulating pressure to send them cascading out of sight. It’s a thing that happens gradually for the field but suddenly for the lone player, and on certain Sundays, like the Sunday we just saw, things are so tight and so confusing that you can’t predict exactly when anyone will go. If you try, you’ll be wrong.

For instance: When I left the media centre early in the afternoon, Tommy Fleetwood was ascendant. He’d just made birdie on eight, and I figured to catch him on ten green. I hardly needed to look at the signs for 10 tee, 10 fairway, 10a fairway crossing, etc., because I could have closed my eyes and followed the shouts of “Tommy!” It’s their favourite word, and their second-favourite is the one they tack on, “lad.” I followed the vocal energy force and arrived just in time to see him miss a 10-foot par putt. Jinx, I thought, but several other reporters informed me that no, in fact, they were the jinx, not me, because they’d caught him on nine, and he bogeyed that one too. Then he made bogey on 11, walked to 12 tee bent into the breeze, face set in what looked like grim defeatism, and two pars later, it was clear that if you were interested in following the winner, you’d better find a different horse.

Tommy fell.

RELATED: Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

Bail out, then, and back to 11, where Sam Burns and his playing partner waited on the tee, peering into the fairway. The herring gulls were thick in the air, circling like white beacons of hope or flesh-craving vultures, the wind threatened to get serious, and the leaderboard proclaimed the new king, Si Woo Kim. All alone, 10 under.

“Man, look at Si Woo.”

“Si Woo could do this.”

“Si Woo could run away with this.”

A memory: Thriston Lawrence, Troon, two years ago, around the same time and on the same day, also destined to win.

In the distance, Si Wood made bogey, and then again, and slipped rather than fell, but slipped precipitously. A ghost remained: Cameron Young, no longer on the course, but now solo leader, now haunting a Birkdale that suddenly seemed less vulnerable. Other innumerable and ancient ghosts had been beckoned to protect its regal dignity, and all of a sudden it became the kind of place where you can shoot 8 under for one round, but you can’t shoot 11 under for four.

Oisin Keniry/R&A

Walking with Burns and his playing partner, we had to live vicariously through Steve, the media liaison clad in the standard-issue black kit emblazoned with the gold Hugo Boss label, who shepherded us through the dune paths and brought us breathless news from the radio in his ear. This is where we learned that Scottie Scheffler had endured some TIO rules fiasco on 17, but made birdie anyway, and now needed to chip in on 18 to tie Young. That seemed promising—at least he didn’t have to putt it—but he missed.

Scottie fell.

Pretty good, I thought, to fall so late after a week of frustrations. He outlasted Jackson Suber, and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, and Ludvig Aberg. He outlasted the messy sad shambolic circus named Bryson DeChambeau. All of them fell before we had time to collect our thoughts, who fell fast enough that we wondered if they were really there in the first place.

What to make of Sam Burns? There is something maddening and heartbreaking, down in the narrative churning centres of the brain, when a player who has had famous difficulty under pressure seems to be improving slowly but steadily, getting closer and closer, until the moment arrives when he’ll stick the blade into the black heart of every demon…except he just does the same thing he’s always done. Burns had become intensely sympathetic to me after Shinnecock, and it felt like this victory was deserved. That word, “deserved,” is loathed by the spirits who govern these results, the little impish minions of Old Tom Morris or whoever, but still, I wasn’t wrong, he deserved it.

He couldn’t make birdies. When he saved a brilliant par on 13, I wrote down the all-caps word “MOMENT” in my notebook, dully registered that his playing partner made birdie, and waited for things to change. They never did. And while they were never changing, somewhere off in the nebulous up-ahead:

Ryan Gerard fell.

Lucas Herbert fell.

They fell quietly, in the way they seemed destined to fall, with never more than a passing thought that inside them they had the capacity for NOISE.

RELATED: Watch Ryan Fox’s incredibly clutch winning birdie putt

Invisible Cam Young rose in the imagination, inflated to ten times his size and strength. He drew in his mighty breath and exhaled like bearded Aeolus, fearsome to behold even as a name on a board.

“Wouldn’t you take Young’s score now?”

“And he should be at 10!”

The playing partner of Sam Burns stopped in the portable toilet after the 13th hole, and we had to wait for him to finish before they’d let us cross the footbridge to the 14th tee. We joked, in our stupid, tired way, about asking him after the round what words of motivation he gave to himself inside the dark, humid, stinking cauldron.

And what about the mood? A little sleepy, for a major finale, but pleasant and cool, and beautiful. Around and underneath thousands of people, the land maintained its serenity. But a layer below that, if only in my head: something mischievous. Some story still to be told.

Now it was a play with few characters, the other principles having been killed off. It’s easy in moments like these to fall into the trap of thinking that nobody was rising to the occasion, but the scene on the ground urges caution. When one or two fail to rise, it’s a story of personal failure. When everyone fails to rise, it may just be that it’s really hard to rise.

Still, you can detect an allergy to the lead even when the reaction isn’t anaphylactic. Kim stood alone for a moment, bogeyed twice to ease the pressure, and never wanted to go back, at least on this day. On 16, he blew an approach from 155 yards, made bogey, and dropped to 7 under. The grip on possibility slackened. But when the 12-foot birdie attempt on 17 slid past, another door closed.

Si Woo fell.

As we waited for the Burns birdie, in the deep recesses of the subconscious, the emergence of a possible parallel: his playing partner faced an impossible bunker lie, hacked out at a horrendous angle, but saved bogey to great applause. He appeared—and later admitted he was—energised. Did it not seem like something we’d seen before, on this course? Yes: 2017, Jordan Spieth, hitting from the driving range on 13, saving a miraculous bogey, and electrifying himself right to a Claret Jug. The gods of England love a plucky defence under impossible conditions. They love a Dunkirk in miniature. He’s their chosen soldier now.

But forget the flights of fancy, the rational voice said: You’ve gone hallucinatory. Even when the man made birdie on 16: Calm down.

The birdies never came from Sam Burns. Everything precise and clinical about his game deserted him, and all he could give himself on the par-5 17th was 32 feet for birdie. Some people think he’s the best putter in the world, but under the gun, he never quite looks like it. And once that chance went begging, the birdie he needed on 18 felt like a dream too far—out of 76 players that day, only four had done the job, and those four didn’t carry this weight.

On the tee, roughly 40 black-clad “player escorts,” who, it was whispered, were all former military, gathered to protect the final two players from the crowd’s imaginary assassins and psychopaths. There were identity checks for the media, large white ropes, blue metal boundaries, and beyond them all, a group of people who had distinguished themselves all week as the world’s ideal spectators. Hell, even the Americans osmosed the simple dignity, fell in line.

Burns, to his credit, kept the faint flames flickering until the last 28-foot putt rolled through the 72nd green. But beneath fluttering banners and the resolute sun, it just couldn’t happen.

Sam Burns fell.

We had been discussing the playoff for some holes. Was it three holes or four? Was it the PGA that was four? Didn’t the Open used to be four? And where would it start? We pointed out the 14th tee to each other. The others said goodbye to those of us who didn’t have the proper credentials to join the proliferating army of mercenaries on the green. But someone who knows when rules should be bent, just a little, had let us climb a dune by the grandstand and look on from afar. We saw it clearly:

The final putt fell. Cam Young fell with it.

And all that stood was the exception—the exception to the great and painful rule.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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The post The Open 2026: One by one at Birkdale, contenders rose and fell appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a “this putt to win a major” moment in golf. But when it came, it didn’t take long. Ryan Fox struck his winning birdie putt on the 18th green at Royal Birkdale just 22 seconds after his playing partner, Sam Burns, holed for par.

Twenty-two seconds!

Having hit his 8-iron approach to 12 feet, the Kiwi settled into his putt, took two brief glances at the hole and rolled in the winning putt.

“It’s always been ‘see a shot, hit a shot’,” Fox said in his post-round interview on the 18th green. “As soon as I start thinking about it too much then some bad stuff creeps in.

RELATED: Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

Fox has long been known as one of the quickest players in professional golf, and it didn’t change even while facing the biggest moment of his career, something that left an instant impression.

“I just love the way he hit that winning putt,” said commentator Ken Brown on the World Feed broadcast. “He could have hit it with no one watching if he wasn’t careful!,” suggesting that the directors in the TV trucks were at risk of not capturing the winning putt due to Fox’s pace.

“Taking no time at all” was Andrew Cotter’s official call, live, before Fox clinched his first major championship.

Even in the 18th fairway, the 39-year-old struck the most important approach of his less than 10 seconds after walking into the shot.

So where does his speed come from?

“I was always that way as a kid,” he said during his winning press conference. “I see things fast. I was the same when I was playing cricket growing up. I played almost every sport growing up, and tennis I wanted to hit the ball hard, and cricket I wanted to hit the ball hard. Everything just happened fast. I was never methodical at anything, to be honest, and it just carried over into golf.”

Remember, Fox comes from a family of athletes. His grandfather, Merv, played cricket for New Zealand. His father, Grant, is one of New Zealand’s all-time best rugby players. And now Ryan, playing with the speed he learned in those sports, is a major champion golfer.

RELATED: Watch Ryan Fox’s incredibly clutch winning birdie putt

It’s not just the media that noticed Fox’s speed, a fellow major champion was amazed at Fox’s brisk play.

“I played with Scottie Scheffler earlier in the year, and I can’t work out if this was a burn or a compliment,” Fox recalled. “We played at Phoenix, and we’re in a three-ball on Saturday. We walk off the ninth tee, and he goes, ‘Foxy, it doesn’t even feel like you’re in the group. It just feels like we’re playing in a two-ball, you hit it so fast. It’s just in the air.’”

Maybe, therein lies a lesson for us all. In a sport often plagued by slow play and five-hour rounds, the Champion Golfer of the Year wastes no time.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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Main Image: Stuart Franklin/R&A

The post The Open 2026: Ryan Fox plays golf at one speed—fast. Here’s why appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There was no great crescendo to the Bryson DeChambeau show at Royal Birkdale.

Rather, there were four straight pars to end the round, a T-14 finish and a group of fans who seemed totally unbothered by one of the most unusual Open Championship campaigns in recent memory.

The two-time U.S. Open winner walked past the press area and out to a group of fans waiting for photographs and autographs with one of golf’s most newsworthy characters. For the fourth straight day, he didn’t do a formal press conference. After signing and posing for selfies, DeChambeau even gave a young English lad, who asked nicely, the hat he wore during a final-round 72.

It came hours after DeChambeau made the turn on Sunday at one over before disaster struck at the par-4 11th. The 32-year-old hit his tee shot into the deep, tall grass left, took two shots to get near the green, but couldn’t find his ball in the deep grass. DeChambeau then had to hit a fifth shot from 118 yards and two-putted for a triple-bogey 7.

RELATED: R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Although he made birdies at 13 and 14, DeChambeau ultimately carded pars all the way in from 15. His weekend rounds of one-under 69 and one-over 72 gave him a 72-hole total of four under, six shots behind winner Ryan Fox.

It was an anticlimax to a spectacular Friday night when DeChambeau disagreed with the R&A over a two-shot penalty.

R&A officials informed DeChambeau after his second round that video footage showed he improved his path swing by trampling down fescue at the fifth hole. The 66 swings he took to get to seven under were adjusted to 68, and his total from seven under to five under. DeChambeau argued his case to no avail and ultimately threatened to withdraw from the event while hitting balls deep into the Southport night.

On Sunday, DeChambeau answered several questions when Golf Digest walked with him through a closed-off area near the media centre.

“I gave it my all this week, and that’s all I care about,” DeChambeau told Golf Digest.

RELATED: Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

Asked a follow-up—whether he was happy with his weekend play—DeChambeau answered, “I am. I wish I could’ve hit a couple of shots better. But I battled and fought and I can hold my head high.”

As it turns out, fans in this part of England will get an encore, given the big-hitting Californian will tee up next week at LIV Golf U.K. at the JCB course only 90 minutes from Royal Birkdale.

“Yes sir, excited for next week,” DeChambeau said.

Like all shows, this one must go on.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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The post The Open 2026: Bryson DeChambeau faded on weekend after controversy, says ‘I can hold my head high’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The reward for winning the British Open just got a little more … rewardier. The R&A announced that this year’s “champion golfer of the year”—New Zealand’s Ryan Fox—will receive $3.2 million from an overall prize money payout at Royal Birkdale of $17.75 million. That’s a bump of $100,000 and a $750,000, respectively, from 2025 at Royal Portrush.

On Wednesday, R&A chief executive Mark Darbon spoke to the media and touched on the modest increase. Previously, Darbon has noted a concern about the rising purses in major championships. For the R&A in particular, he has explained, the money offered to players comes at the expense of other programs that it funds, impacting the R&A’s mission of growing the came at a grassroots level.

RELATED: Watch Ryan Fox’s incredibly clutch winning birdie putt

Masters: $22.5 million/$4.5 million
PGA: $20.5 million/$3.69 million
U.S. Open: $22.5 million/$4.5 million

Mind you, claiming the moniker “champion golfer of the year” and having possession of the Claret Jug might be worth even more in the long run than the payday the winner will claim.

Its public fiscal caution aside, the R&A has followed the trend of others with steady increases in its prize money payouts over the last few decades. Here’s how much the winners at Royal Birkdale overearned over time, in part mirroring the overall rise.

Year, Overall Purse, Winner’s Share
1954: £3,500, £750/$1,000 (Peter Thomson)
1961: £8,500, £1,150/$1,538 (Arnold Palmer)
1965: £10,000, £1,750/$2,340 (Peter Thomson)
1971: £45,000, £5,500/$7,356 (Lee Trevino)
1976: £75,000, £7,500/$10K (Johnny Miller)
1983: £310,000, £40,000/$53.5K (Tom Watson)
1991: £900,000, £90,000/$120K (Ian Baker-Finch)
1998: £1.8 million, £300,000/$401K (Mark O’Meara
2008: £4.2 million, £750,000/$1M (Padraig Harrington)
2017: $10.25 million, $1.845 million (Jordan Spieth)
*Dollars before 2017 were figured using an exchange rate of $1 equal to £0.75. The R&A began paying prize money in American dollars in 2017.

Here’s the prize money payouts for everybody who played 72 holes this week.

Win: Ryan Fox, -10/270, $3,200,000

2: Cameron Young, -9/271, $1,842,000

3: Sam Burns, -8/272, $1,181,000

T-4: Scottie Scheffler, -7/273, $827,500

T-4: Tommy Fleetwood, -7/273, $827,500

T-6: Lucas Herbert, -6/274, $550,883

T-6: Casey Jarvis, -6/274, $550,883

T-6: Si Woo Kim, -6/274, $550,883

T-9: Ryan Gerard, -5/275, $336,380

T-9: Ludvig Aberg, -5/275, $336,380

T-9: Adam Scott, -5/275, $336,380

T-9: Russell Henley, -5/275, $336,380

T-9: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, -5/275, $336,380

T-14: Corey Conners, -4/276 , $234,325

T-14: Sungjae Im, -4/276 , $234,325

T-14: Hideki Matsuyama, -4/276 , $234,325

T-14: Bryson DeChambeau, -4/276 , $234,325

T-18: Rickie Fowler, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Chris Gotterup, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Bud Cauley, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Marco Penge, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Alex Noren, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Collin Morikawa, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Kristoffer Reitan, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Daniel Brown, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Jordan Smith, -3/277, $164,575

T-18: Xander Schauffele, -3/277, $164,575

T-28: John Parry, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Victor Perez, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Patrick Cantlay, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Brooks Koepka, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Pierceson Coody, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Robert MacIntyre, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Jacob Bridgeman, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Max Homa, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Shane Lowry, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Cameron John, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Kazuma Kobori, -2/278, $102,817

T-28: Jackon Suber, -2/278, $102,817

T-40: Thomas Detry, -1/279, $69,750

T-40: J.J. Spaun, -1/279, $69,750

T-40: Kurt Kitayama, -1/279, $69,750

T-40: Michael Thorbjornsen, -1/279, $69,750

T-40: Matt Wallace, -1/279, $69,750

T-40: Rory McIlroy, -1/279, $69,750

T-46: Matthew Southgate, E/280, $51,707

T-46: Eugenio Chacarra, E/280, $51,707

T-46: Patrick Reed, E/280, $51,707

T-46: Francesco Molinari, E/280, $51,707

T-46: Hennie du Plessis, E/280, $51,707

T-46: Josele Ballester, E/280, $51,707

T-46: Jon Rahm, E/280, $51,707

T-53: Ryo Hisatsune, +1/281 , $45,183

T-53: Michael Brennan, +1/281 , $45,183

T-53: Shaun Norris, +1/281 , $45,183

T-53: Sahith Theegala, +1/281 , $45,183

T-53: Alex Smalley, +1/281 , $45,183

T-53: Eric Cole, +1/281, $45,183

T-59: Ben Griffin, +2/282, $43,025

T-59: Aldrich Potgieter, +2/282, $43,025

T-59: Min Woo Lee, +2/282, $43,025

T-59: Nick Taylor, +2/282, $43,025

T-59: Naoyuki Kataoka, +2/282, $43,025

T-59: Johnny Keefer, +2/282, $43,025

T-65: Peter Uihlein, +3/283, $41,988

T-65: Justin Thomas, +3/283, $41,988

T-67: Nico Echavarria, +4/284, $41,350

T-67: Sepp Straka, +4/284, $41,350

T-69: Andy Sullivan, +5/285, $40,800

T-69: Tyrrell Hatton, +5/285, $40,800

T-71: Laurie Canter, +6/286, $40,450

T-71: MJ Daffue, +6/286, $40,450

T-71: Alex Fitzpatrick, +6/286, $40,450

T-74: Keegan Bradley, +7/287, $40,075

T-74: Kazuki Higa, +7/287, $40,075

T-74: Marcus Plunkett, +7/287, $40,075

77: Jack McDonald, +8/288, $39,825

78: Jesper Svensson, +9/289, $39,700

Non-qualifiers after two rounds: Leading 10 professional golfers and ties USD 12,900; next 20 professional golfers and ties USD 10,750; remainder of professional golfers and ties USD 9,100.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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The post The Open prize money 2026: Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The resilient Kiwi, who overcame a couple of bad breaks coming home, converted just the fifth birdie of the day at the long par-4 18th hole, sneaking his ball in the left side. He raised both arms in triumph in becoming the second man from New Zealand to win the Claret Jug and claim the title of Champion Golfer of the Year. Fox, 39, joins Bob Charles, who won in 1963 just up the road from Birkdale at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.

RELATED: Watch Ryan Fox’s incredibly clutch winning birdie putt

Fox, who began the day trailing 54-hole leader Sam Burns by two, birdied four of his final six holes to rally for a closing 68 to complete 72 holes in 10-under 270 to edge Cameron Young by a stroke. Combined with his 62 in the third round—the third player after Burns and Lucas Herbert to tie the major championship scoring record—Fox matched the lowest final 36 holes in the championship at 130. Ranked 56th in the world, Fox collected $3.25 million from the record $17.75 million purse.

Ryan Fox. Nerves of steel.
 
That is how you win The 154th Open. pic.twitter.com/M6YxCYEuXA

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 19, 2026

“It’s unbelievable. I’m still not sure what to think. It is a dream come true,” Fox said after an emotional phone call with his family who was still in New Zealand and the trophy ceremony. “I’m not quite sure how I hit that putt at 18. It’s surreal that it went in. Yeah, Champion Golfer of the Year has a pretty good ring to it.”

Young, relegated to his second runner-up finish in the Open, started the final round seven off the pace after he bogeyed four of his final eight holes on Saturday to shoot 73 but then established a clubhouse lead that held up for more than two hours and until the final stroke from Fox.

The reigning Players champion, Young, 29, teed off two hours, 15 minutes ahead of the final pairing of Burns and Fox, and he did just about everything he could to emerge with the title. He birdied his first three holes and four of his first five to begin his final round. He went out in five-under 39, and when he birdied the two par-5s on the inward nine, Young was alone at the top at 10 under par. However, after finding a fairway bunker off the tee at the long par-4 18th, Young thinned his second into the bunker face and was fortunate that his ball caromed sideways into the rough. His third found another bunker greenside, and he got up and down for bogey for a 64, low round of the day. As contenders struggled on the baked-out Birkdale layout, Young’s nine-under 271 total kept holding up.

With six holes remaining, six players were still in the hunt to catch him. That included defending champion Scottie Scheffler, who, despite a cold putter throughout the championship, somehow managed to hang around—as he usually does. Needing a birdie at the last to tie Young at nine under par, Scheffler pushed his drive into the right rough and came up short of the green on his second. He used a putter for his third but knocked his ball 10 feet past the hole. The world No. 1 player missed the par putt to shoot 67 and ended up T-4 with hometown favourite Tommy Fleetwood at 273.

RELATED: Watch Ryan Fox’s incredibly clutch winning birdie putt

Si Woo Kim, who came into the championship with one top-10 finish in 37 major starts, climbed over Young into first with birdies at Nos. 5 and 6. However, he gave back four strokes coming home to shoot 72-274 for joint sixth place.

Burns, who almost skipped the championship after his wife Caroline gave birth to their second child on July 3, notched an early birdie at the second hole to reach 11 under par, but three bogeys in a row starting at the fourth proved his undoing. He made all pars the rest for 72, and he finished third at 272 for his second straight major disappointment after a runner-up finish at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock.

“I played a lot of great golf this week. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my best stuff today and made a couple of mistakes early,” Burns said. “Ryan played amazingly. He’s a well-earned champion, and hats off to him. He did what he needed to do down the stretch.”

The day was not without some Bryson DeChambeau drama. The two-time U.S. Open winner, who began the day four back, made triple bogey at the par-4 11th hole when his third shot from the left rough from 134 yards flew over the green and couldn’t be found despite playing in front of a large gallery. DeChambeau salvaged 72 and dropped to T-14 at 276.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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The post The Open 2026: Kiwi Ryan Fox makes rare birdie on Birkdale’s 18th to become a major champion appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

A wild week at Royal Birkdale ended with a walk-off birdie putt by Ryan Fox.

The 39-year-old New Zealander claimed his first major in clutch fashion by winning the Open Championship thanks to a birdie on the 72nd hole to defeat Cameron Young by one shot. Have a look:

New Zealand's second-ever Champion Golfer of the Year, Ryan Fox @TheOpen pic.twitter.com/vm3ruMcX2I

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 19, 2026

Fox made back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14 to pull even with Young, who had finished off a Sunday 64 much earlier. But a bad break on 15 and a bogey looked like it might derail the man who won twice on the PGA Tour last year.

Instead, he responded with a birdie on No. 16. Then, after another bad break off the tee on 17 and a disappointing par on the par 5, he made a rare birdie on No. 18 after hitting a pair of perfect shots under the utmost pressure.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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The post The Open 2026: Watch Ryan Fox’s incredibly clutch winning birdie putt appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

It is Saturday night in Southport, and according to the leaderboard, someone is going to do something they’ve never done before.

Sam Burns is the pace car after 54 holes, his 10-under score good for a two-shot lead at Royal Birkdale. But there are seven players within four, and the connective tissue between Burns and almost all of his chasers is this: None of them has won a major. On Sunday, one of them will.

The majors are notoriously unkind to the inexperienced, putting a number on the part of you that only shows up when the price of missing is highest. You can’t practice for it. You can’t simulate it on a Tuesday or in a standard tour event. Most golfers go their whole careers without ever finding out what they’re made of, because most weeks let them get away with not knowing. A major asks the question on the back nine on Sunday, in front of everyone, and there’s no answer you can fake. That’s why some names keep coming back, and others disappear after one taste of it. It isn’t always about talent or skill, but the one who found out something true about himself and could live with it.

RELATED: Sunday’s final-round pairings at Royal Birkdale

The outlier on Sunday is Bryson DeChambeau, a two-time U.S. Open champion, four back of Burns. Although, in a sense, this whole week has been an inflexion point for DeChambeau—after Friday’s shocking penalty and ensuing theatrics, in the face of questions about his form this year and on links golf specifically. His career is also at a crossroads. LIV Golf may not exist by the end of next month, and he won’t get a path back to the PGA Tour for years. He’s floated, leaning fully into YouTube golf, because that may be the option left. But win here, and he has leverage he’s never had and may never have again. For a player who wants more than almost anything to control his own brand, this could be the best chance he gets.

And he has reason to like his chances, because the players around him are those whom few expected to see here.

Start with Si Woo Kim. His major record is shockingly thin for a career this good. In 37 major starts before this week, Kim has one top-10. He’s won the Players, but all due respect to that championship’s case for major status, this is a different building. Ask anyone on tour, though, and they’ll tell you Si Woo has every shot in the bag. This week, he’s finally used them in the right order. “I feel pretty comfortable,” Kim said, who is two shots behind despite playing through blisters on his foot. “I’ve been playing a lot in contention this year. So I’m like two shots back, and I don’t have to feel too much pressure.”

Ludvig Aberg isn’t exactly a surprise. Not long ago, he was the wunderkind, making a Ryder Cup team before he’d made a major start. But for as good as he’s been the last three years, he hasn’t returned to the trajectory his ceiling promised. The player who once looked like the sport’s inevitability has instead become something more ordinary. Very good, reliably so, which was never the plan. Sunday, at four shots back, is the chance to get back on it—to remind everyone, himself included, why the inevitability talk started in the first place.

Ryan Gerard is a star still being built. Sharp, funny, easy to like, with the game to match. This time last year, he was grinding through an alternate event, which he went on to win. His rise since has been steady—three runners-up in 2026, a good chance to make the U.S. Presidents Cup team—the kind that sneaks up on casual observers and becomes obvious all at once. This is his first Open. These are the weeks you introduce yourself to the world. “I’ve felt pretty good about the way that we handled business so far,” said Gerard, three behind. “It’s still a lot of golf left to play, and it’s not going to be easy tomorrow.”

A month ago, Jackson Suber was trying to hold onto his card. Good finishes at the RBC Canadian Open and the John Deere took care of that. His pre-week odds here were long for good reason: Until this week, he’d never been to Europe, let alone played links golf. Lucas Herbert tied the championship record with a 62 on Friday. Ryan Fox matched it Saturday morning. Both are steady veterans. Between them, they have four top-20 finishes in majors. They will all have late tee times Sunday afternoon.

RELATED: Sam Burns has another chance to win his first major. And he has a text message from his wife to thank for it

And then there’s Burns. He nearly won one three weeks ago, inches from forcing a playoff in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock. The other close call came the year before, at the same championship, undone by a brutal ruling. Unlike the others here, his name on the leaderboard isn’t a total shock. What’s surprising is that he almost didn’t come at all; he’d planned to stay home with his wife and their newborn, and only made the trip after the baby arrived early and his wife pushed him to go. He’s also said, more than once, that he doesn’t love links golf, which showed in a rough start here. We’re guessing it’s growing on him.

“Talked to [wife] Caroline, texted with her, and she basically told me, like, you’re over there, and I’m good at home. Like, we’re good. You need to be where your feet are,” Burns said, regarding his weekend surge. “I think that was really what I needed to hear in that moment. It’s probably what I didn’t want to hear, but I needed to hear it.”

But Burns knows better than most that someone doing something they’ve never done before doesn’t mean it will be something good. Majors don’t just crown people; they take parts of you and leave scars. Someone will eject, hit a shot that finds a lie they’ve never had to reckon with, watch a two-shot lead evaporate on the back nine in the time it takes to read a putt wrong. Someone will get within a swing of what they’ve wanted since they were a kid and lose it, and the losing will be worse for how close it came, because next year is never guaranteed, and for some of these men, this might be the only Sunday like this they ever get.

That’s the cruelty, and the appeal. The margin for what you’re willing to lose gets set impossibly high, and nobody gets to choose the cost after the fact. Most of these players will walk off the 18th green Sunday having surrendered a day or week or season’s worth of good form, maybe more than that, and gotten nothing back for it. But somewhere in that group is the man who finally does the thing he’s never done, and walks away with something that never expires.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

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The post The Open 2026: Someone is going to do something they’ve never done before appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In the aftermath of his close call at last month’s U.S. Open, when he was playing the best of the contenders on Sunday but couldn’t quite catch Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns couldn’t hold back the tears. His father was there, and the 29-year-old PGA Tour pro badly wanted to win his first major dad on Father’s Day. What also came into play was the sheer exhaustion of battling Shinnecock Hills for four days and missing glory by a single stroke. Maybe intuitively he knew there would be another chance—probably multiple chances—but in the moment, it’s hard to imagine when it will come.

What Burns didn’t imagine is that it would happen here, at the Open Championship, just a few weeks after that disappointment. It’s not that he didn’t believe in myself, but that he literally had not planned to come. He and his wife Caroline were expecting their second child the week before the Open, and Burns had decided not to play. Instead, though, that child—daughter Belle—came earlier than expected, and even though he was hesitant to leave, Caroline actually encouraged him to do just that. He even phoned his friend Scottie Scheffler, who offered some encouragement, and when his wife explicitly told him that she had things under control on the home front, he decided to head out—and leaving was, as he expected, very hard.

After an uncomfortable plane ride, his practice round was a disaster, and on Thursday he finished out an otherwise promising day by making bogey on his final three holes. An opening 73 on a gettable course is bad news, but it had one nice counter-effect: It freed him up mentally. (It didn’t hurt that Caroline sent him another encouraging text: “You need to be where your feet are.”) On Friday, he became the third man to shoot a 62 at the Open Championship, and Saturday, he kept the ride going in the midst of the chaotic Bryson show, shooting a 65 alongside DeChambeau to take a two-shot lead heading into the final round.

RELATED: Sunday’s final-round pairings at Royal Birkdale

This will be the second time he’s held the 54-hole lead at a major, and that’s a big part of the story that defines what happens tomorrow. At the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, he led Adam Scott by a shot, but faltered down the stretch and shot 78 as J.J. Spaun took the trophy. That was a discouraging day, but he seemed to have learned something ahead of Shinnecock this year, where he started behind Wyndham Clark but played an excellent round and came just a made putt on 17 or 18 from forcing a playoff. So what did he learn, and can he take it with him tomorrow at Birkdale?

“I felt like I played a bit too aggressive at times,” he said of his major experience, “and I think at some of these golf courses you’re penalised a little bit more than a typical tour golf course…I think I hadn’t quite learned that the hard way yet. It took a bit longer for me.”

Of course, it’s never a bad thing to have a guy like Scheffler as a constant silent mentor.

“It helped that I got to play a lot of golf with the best player on the planet and kind of watch what he does,” he said. “I mean, he’s far and beyond the best person that does that. I mean, he just, he makes so few mistakes, and he doesn’t take on unnecessary risks very often, if ever, and seems to always hit the correct shot in the moment.”

Burns never really asked Scheffler for advice, he said, but he did a lot of observing, and his trajectory has been evident. Heading into tomorrow, there are a few good signs. For one thing, he’s never led by two shots before, and for another, the five men below him on the scoreboard have never won a major either. His older brother made the trip to keep him company, he has the full support of his family back home, and he knows, as he said, that no matter what happens on Sunday, “life’s going to move on.”

Still, there’s no hiding behind the reality of pressure, and just because he didn’t expect to even be here, much less leading after Saturday, doesn’t mean the reality won’t set in. He knows from experience that it’s physically and mentally taxing to compete for a major, and no amount of perspective or support or belief can hit a good golf shot for you. At a course like Birkdale, there will be players making runs, and he’ll have to step up and surpass them all. He hasn’t done that yet in his career, but his trajectory is moving in the right direction. His moment awaits.

• • •

MORE GOLF DIGEST OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COVERAGE

Everything you need to know about this year’s major at Royal Birkdale

The Open Championship is not called “The British”

Here’s the record payout for each golfer at Royal Birkdale

After hitting the opening tee shot at the U.S. Open, James Nicholas qualifies

Here’s everybody in the field (so far) at Royal Birkdale

The decision tour pros face as they stand on the tee at Royal Birkdale

The Open keeps growing. But is it coming at the price of tradition?

R&A CEO says Bryson penalty was ‘clear cut’ rules decision, no call from Trump

Rory McIlroy sounds off on Bryson DeChambeau, calling actions ‘performative’ and for attention, and penalty was deserved

Sunday’s final-round pairings at Royal Birkdale

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The post The Open 2026: Sam Burns has another chance to win his first major. And he has a text message from his wife to thank for it appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.