Ryan Fox said winning the British Open is something he “would have killed” for when battling just to make it as a golf pro, but he may not even be the best sportsman in his family.
The third New Zealander to win a men’s Major is the son of former All Black Grant Fox, who won the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. His maternal grandfather Merv Wallace captained and coached the New Zealand cricket team.
“I don’t know if this tops their achievements, but it’s certainly right up there,” Fox said after his breakthrough at Royal Birkdale. “I guess there’s no pressure on my kids going forward now!”
The 39-year-old had never even cracked the top 10 of a Major before the Open, but has bucked the general pattern in golf by succeeding as a late bloomer. “I was a rookie on the DP World [European] Tour at 30. I was a rookie on the PGA Tour at 37 and now a Major champion at 39. I’m definitely not following the trend at the moment,” he said. “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 has had to live in the shadow of his father in a rugby-mad nation, but credited his dad’s spell as a caddie for a turning point in his career.
“My second year on the Aussie Tour, I was pretty close to giving it up,” he said.
“I had just missed the cut at the Aussie PGA badly. My dad came over and caddied for me and he said to me, ‘why do you play this game?’ And I said, ‘well, it’s supposed to be fun’. But it wasn’t really very fun at the time. He goes, ‘well, let’s just go out this week and try to have some fun’.
“I think I finished fifth that week and made enough to keep my card for the year. Took the pressure off the rest of the year and I came back the following year and played really, really well.”
Fox follows in the footsteps of Bob Charles at the 1964 British Open and Michael Campbell at the US Open in 2005 as the only male Kiwi winners of Majors. New Zealand has a superstar of the women’s game in Lydia Ko, who has three Majors to her name at the age of 29.
“I think we punch above our weight a little bit in New Zealand anyway,” said Fox. “I think this will be huge for New Zealand golf.”
Fox birdied the final hole for a two-under par 68, finishing on 10 under par. He pipped American Cameron Young to the Claret Jug by one shot.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
