RYAN FOX INTERVIEW

Ryan Fox reveals how he tamed Royal Birkdale’s fiery fairways and tricky greens to win the Open Championship

How does it feel to be Champion Golfer the Year?

Surreal, to be honest. It’s something you dream of. I used to get up in the middle of the night to watch this tournament when I was a kid back home. To even get a chance to play in it seemed like a pipe dream, so now to be an Open champion, to be the Champion Golfer of the Year, it’s unbelievable, crazy. I don’t have enough words in my vocabulary to explain it, to be honest.

And the second champion from New Zealand following on from Sir Bob Charles; that’s quite a distinction in itself?

It is. 1963, wasn’t it, at Lytham? So yeah, that’s huge for New Zealand golf. I think we’ve got four major champions from New Zealand now: Michael Campbell, Lydia Ko, a multi-major champion, and Sir Bob, so to be able to join them is amazing. To have my own little piece of history too is amazing.

Your sporting heritage with your dad and the All Blacks, and your grandfather as the New Zealand cricket captain, is well documented and something you’ve constantly been reminded of, so what does it mean to sort of stand shoulder to shoulder with them?

 Yeah, we’ve got a great history in our family. I think the other great thing is I had no pressure on me to follow in any of their footsteps. I was lucky enough to carve my own path there and had support from both my grandfather early on and obviously mum and dad through the whole thing. I don’t know if this tops their achievements, but it’s certainly right up there. I guess there’s no pressure on my kids going forward now!

Would it be fair to say that that’s probably the best golf you’ve ever played in your life, the way you tackled that 18th hole? And can you talk about the emotions coming up there?

Yeah, definitely the first part. I mean, I hit two shots exactly how I wanted to hit them. I didn’t feel anything for the putt; everything was shaking that much. I was just happy to hit it somewhat near the hole, and to see it go in was incredible.

I did say to my caddie, Dean, on the tee that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament, and I’d live with the consequences if I stuffed it up. To go out there and execute, and to hit it in the fairway and give myself a chance, was huge.

Then I landed on a good number. I think I had 175 yards to the hole. The breeze was a little down off the left. Obviously everything is a bit jammed up there, so it was just a solid 9, and I hit it exactly where I wanted to hit it. I think I screamed to it, ‘Please be good’ in the air, and it was.

To cap it off with a putt — everyone practises on the green, I guess, you’ve got to a putt to win a major championship, to win The Open. It’s not like that in real life. It’s not a very comfortable feeling, but it’s certainly very enjoyable when you see it go in.

Your best finish in this championship before today was tied for 16th at Royal Portrush in 2019. What clicked for you this week?

I just always loved links golf from the first time I played it. I just love the creativity needed. Growing up in New Zealand, we play in a fair bit of wind, so getting to do that and having to control your ball and hit some not proper golf shots or not normal golf shots is really cool, and that’s probably what I enjoy about golf and links golf specifically, the most.

I feel like I’ve played well in Opens before but just never really put four rounds together. I probably wouldn’t say I put four rounds together this week either. I put three together to give myself even a chance today after yesterday’s round. You’re not expecting that going out, even though you feel like you can shoot a low score early, to go out and shoot 62 and go from 52nd place to be out in the last group on Sunday doesn’t happen very often.

To go out with the pressure on, with a chance to win The Open, and to actually do it – I didn’t know what I was going to feel going out there today. I did say to my caddie a few holes in, I feel better than I thought I was going to feel, but I probably still didn’t feel that comfortable. But got a little bit more comfortable down the stretch.

Why do you think it’s Birkdale in particular where you’ve won your Open Championship?

Honestly, I don’t know. I played here in 2017 and really liked the course. Even though I missed the cut, something felt good about it. It’s a golf course I feel comfortable on. I like how its played this week, firm and fast, and that you could take it on a little bit. If you were aggressive and pulled it off, you could shoot a score. I think it’s one of the best courses on The Open rota, and the changes they made for this year were incredible. I can now say I’m looking forward to coming back whenever it is going to be here next time.

How pivotal was the birdie on 13 in terms of igniting your momentum. You looked really relaxed after hitting that great shot in there. Did that help you kick on from there?

 Yeah, obviously not — I’d hit a bad shot into 11 and 12. It was a pretty good up-and-down on 12 to kind of not do too much damage. That tee shot on 13, I hit driver off it every day this week and executed it twice and not executed it twice, but played it even-par for the week, which I guess is pretty good overall. I kind of took the theory around the whole golf course this week that, if you take it on, at least if you miss it, you can kind of get it up to a wedge out. If you don’t take it on and lay back and stuff it up, you’re in a really bad place. So that tee shot was huge. I hit it exactly where I wanted to hit it and kind of had a laugh with Radar [Sky Sports Golf on-course commentator Wayne Riley] saying, is that the right club down there or not? He’s like, it doesn’t matter when you hit it there. To take advantage of that, obviously I hit a lob wedge in there and holed a 15-footer, probably just snuck in the right edge. But yeah, that started the momentum on that back nine.

You didn’t turn professional until you were in your mid-20s. At that stage did you still feel that you could get to the point where you are today?

When I turned pro, my goal was just to get on tour. I said to my team last night over dinner that if you’d have given me my career up until yesterday when I turned pro, I’d have jumped at that. I don’t know what to think now, to be honest. Yeah, it is something that’s always there. You dream of being a major champion. You want to do it whether you think it’s a reality or not. I guess I probably didn’t until the last couple of years. I wasn’t in the major championships consistently until the last couple of years, so to sit here as the Champion Golf of the Year, is, as I’ve already said, slightly surreal.

People were marvelling at how fast you play. Can you just explain what that strategy does for you as a player and maybe where you developed that, where you learned it?

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

It’s not that difficult to pick a shot and pick a club. I get in there, and it all happens quick. I just see the shot quickly, pick a shot quickly, and the less time I have to think about it, the less bad stuff can creep in there.

Your caddie, Dean, was talking about some work that you’ve done on your mental game behind the scenes. Could you share a little bit about what you’ve been working on?

Yeah, we changed things up a little bit this week. We actually had less discussion on clubs so I could own it a little bit more. Dean probably was getting a few earfuls from me being in between clubs and I was taking it out on him. I was talking with my sports psychologist, Karl Morris, when he was here earlier this week, and we chatted about how I’m better when I create a shot, and creating a shot is almost getting the data off Dean,, and then I make the decision of everything else, and then I verbalise what I’m going to do to him.

I did that really well the whole of this week, especially coming down the stretch today. The other thing we worked on was, especially over the putter, was to take some deep breaths. I do tend to get a little quick at times, and just taking a second longer, especially over a putt, just get myself ready, get myself relaxed. I did that a lot down the stretch. I’m pretty sure you could probably see it on camera as well. There was a lot of deep breaths walking down some fairways just trying to compose myself. It obviously worked pretty well.

The crowd seemed to be pulling for you over the closing holes, especially once Tommy was no longer able to win. How did that help you?

The crowd was amazing. There seemed to be alot of Kiwis in the crowd. You could definitely hear them loudly over all of this week, especially today. It felt like the English crowd also got behind me. I was trying not to get too caught up in it coming down the stretch, just focusing  on what I could control. The reception coming into 18 was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. I can’t thank the fans enough for their support. It was awesome.

What do you think winning this will do for golf in New Zealand?

It will be pretty big. I know it’s going to ruin a lot of guys’ Monday mornings! But, look, I think we punch above our weight a little bit in New Zealand anyway. Dame Lydia Ko has won, three majors and she’s not even 30 yet. It’s pretty crazy. I think this will be huge for New Zealand golf. Recreationally the game has been booming pretty much since COVID, and that momentum has kept going. Hopefully this adds a little bit to that.

We’ve seen guys on tour coming out younger and younger each year, it seems. Your career arc has been completely different. Sort of a slow burn and a late bloomer. Why do you think that’s been? Have there been any stages throughout your career where you thought, professional golf is not for me, I’m going to go do something else?

I’ll answer the second bit first. During my second year on the PGA of Australia Tour, I was pretty close to giving it up. I think I had three events left in the season, and I was not enjoying it. I played well enough in pro-ams to make a little money, but I had not played well on Tour, and I was well outside keeping my card. I remember getting to the Australian Masters at Royal Melbourne. It was the second-to-last event of the year. I had just missed the cut at the Australian PGA. 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 that 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 well. Yeah, I was very close to giving it up at that point.

Why it’s a slow burn? I don’t know. I was a rookie on the DP World Tour at 30. I was a rookie on the PGA TOUR at 37 and now I’m a major champion at 39. I’m definitely not following the trend at the moment. But if I can just keep getting a little bit better every year, I’ll be pretty happy with that.