TELFER’S TAKE 14.7.26

Form is temporary, it is said, but class is permanent. In recent weeks our two top golfers have served to remind us of the underlying truth of that old saying. It’s been a lean few weeks for a number of our top golfers, but last week Lydia Ko and Ryan Fox showed their class when playing against the world’s best.

Lydia lined up in France for the 4th Women’s Major Championship of the year, the Evian

Championship, a title she won a couple of years back to give her a third Major title and then of course she followed up a couple of weeks later with a win in the Open Championship. But for the last couple of seasons, since those wins at the end of 2024, Lydia’s Major’s form has been poor. Going into the Evian last week she’d missed the cut in 3 of her last 5 Majors, without doubt the worst run she’s had in Majors in her 14 years as a professional golfer.

However her form at Evian put to rest any suggestion that she was well past her best - 4 rounds under par, all 4 rounds in the 60’s and a final round of 64, 7 under par the lowest round of the final day. That was classic Lydia. In the end her 13 under total for the tournament didn’t really get her close to the title, but finishing in 7th place was a very rewarding outing for Lydia. Hopefully she can take that form with her back across the English Channel and into the final women’s Major of the year, the Open Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes in Lancashire starting 30 July, on the

course where Bob Charles won his British Open in 1963.

And just to put things into perspective, that 7 th place last week was Lydia’s 18 th top 10 finish in a Major.

Now this week Ryan Fox will be seeking his first top 10 finish in a Major when he lines up for the men’s final Major of 2026, the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

It’s fair to say Ryan hasn’t enjoyed the level of success on the USPGA Tour this year that he did in 2025, highlighted by those two victories mid-year coming within the space of 5 weeks. But what he has achieved this year is consistency. From 15 starts he’s made the cut in all but two of those events. Sure, his stats have been made to look better this year because he’s been eligible to play in all 8 of the rich Signature events, some of which don’t have a cut. Nonetheless, not only has he made the cut in nearly 90% of the events he’s played in, but he’s recorded 7 top 25 placings along with a 30th place finish in last week’s Scottish Open. This was a very strong field because it now forms part of

both the DP World Tour and the USPGA Tour. Effectively he was lining up against the best of Europe.

Two other Kiwis, Daniel Hillier and Kazuma Kobori, will also play at Royal Birkdale. These two, however, will be looking for a change of fortunes with their games. Hillier has now missed the cut in his last couple of events and while Kobori has fared better, he too has had to grapple with form lapses in recent weeks.

With three Kiwis in the field, a rare but not unprecedented situation, there will be plenty of golf fans back here glued to the four days of live coverage of the Open on Sky, even if it seems likely the Open will be competing with concluding stages of a certain “soccer” event taking place on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.