TELFER’S TAKE 27.7.26

In the 5 seconds it took for Ryan Fox’s ball to roll the 11 feet from his putting blade to the bottom of the hole on the final green at Royal Birkdale, his life changed forever.

In the space of those 5 seconds he went from golf hero to folk hero, honoured and praised globally not just for winning probably the most cherished prize in golf, the Open Championship, but also for the way he conquered that final demanding hole, a 473-yard par 4 playing as the most difficult of holes at Birkdale on that Sunday. He knew he had to make birdie on that hole to win the title and so, as they say in sport, “He went for it”. Only 3 golfers from the field of 70-odd before him were able to birdie that hole during the final round. Not even the knowledge that the fairway at some stages was only 15 yards wide could deter the ambitious Kiwi. He slammed his tee 330 yards right down the centre of the fairway, then floated a beautiful 9 iron to within 11 feet of the hole. It left the commentators and the huge crowd seated around the green speechless.

Then once the magnificence of his golf had been realised by one and all, cheers erupted long and hard around this amphitheatre as Foxy marched confidently onto the green to address his putt and the rest as we know is history.

Somewhat lost in the riotous celebrations that followed that successful putt was the huge list of benefits that he’s accrued. Ryan, in his typical low-key fashion, rather dismissed the $5.5million in prizemoney as a bit of an afterthought. But I guess when you’ve won the best part of $20million in winnings in less than 2 years on the US Tour, you can kind of understand his reaction. What I’m sure means as much, if not more, as the money are the exemptions he’s acquired, like a 5-year entry to all of the Majors which should help keep his ranking comfortably inside the top 50 on the World Ranking list. His win saw his ranking jump from 56 to 22. That also pretty much guarantees him a

place in the FedEx Cup final which is restricted to just the top 30 golfers. The Open championship is of course also part of the DP World Tour, so his win last week would also, I think, guarantee him a place in the Race to Dubai season finale in November. His elevated status now on the USPGA Tour should free him up to return to NZ next year, if he so wishes, to play the NZ Open, scheduled again for Queenstown early in 2027. Can you imagine the crowd numbers which would flock to that event to see the current Open Champion, a Kiwi, playing in his national Open? Many other benefits will flow his way as well. Sponsors, club and ball manufacturers, clothing giants and goodness knows

who else will be lining up to have their products attached to the name of this eminently sensible and likeable fellow.

An indication of the tailspin his life has quickly gone into following his win was his decision to jump on a plane with his family and fly back to NZ for a couple of weeks to escape the mania that has surrounded him in the States.

Meanwhile life continues apace on the PGA Tour and today produced another sensation when a 21- year-old American, Jackson Koivun, who has only been a professional for 24 days, yes 24 days, withstood a blistering weekend blitz from Scottie Scheffler to win the 3M Open by 3 shots.

Scheffler played the last 2 rounds 15 under par with a 64 and 63 but still came up short by 3 shots to the young rookie who held his nerve to go 61 and 66 to match the world’s number 1, stroke for stroke, over his last 36 holes. An amazing feat. Koivun had been the world’s number 1 ranked amateur for the last 56 weeks prior to turning professional. Now we’re all left wondering how long it will be before he becomes the game’s number 1 golfer.