The Open 2026: Ryan Fox plays golf at one speed

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.

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.

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.

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