‘Fastest player in the world’: Ryan Fox’s superpower is his speed. It won him British Open

SOUTHPORT, England – The scene around Royal Birkdale Golf Club’s 18th green is designed to be reveled in. To be serenaded and celebrated. To take a beat with and soak in the gravity of the final moment in golf’s oldest championship.

Massive grandstands flank each side. Thousands of fans wait hours to greet the eventual champion of The Open. Just a bit earlier, they rose to their feet and gave Tommy Fleetwood a hometown hero’s send-off. Fleetwood took a beat and let himself feel the admiration.

Ryan Fox had no interest.

Twenty-two seconds is all Fox needed to strike the biggest putt of his life.

Twenty-two seconds after Sam Burns picked his ball out of the 18th hole at Royal Birkdale, before the crowd could stop clapping or the broadcast could set up what came next, Fox’s 11-foot birdie putt was off and tumbling toward the back of the hole.

Before anyone, including Fox, could sit with the weight of the moment, it was over. Fox was the Champion Golfer of the Year.

Amid a chaotic Sunday of leads lost, charging stars and racing minds of contenders falling apart, the quickest of them all stayed ahead of the fray. Fox isn’t the best player in the world, but his superpower won him The Open Championship – his speed.

“He's probably the fastest player in the world,” said his caddie Dean Smith.

Fox is the hallmark of an endangered breed of golfer. He sees things fast. He always has. It was that way when he played cricket and tennis growing up. It’s that way now, in every aspect of life. He makes decisions quickly. He talks quickly. The preponderance of speeding cameras in New Zealand means he can’t drive fast, but he would if he could.

That makes him an outlier in the world of pro golf, where five-hour rounds are the norm and pre-shot routines make your gimpy grandfather look speedy. It’s the antithesis of modern sports psychology, where playing “sped up” is viewed as a hindrance and slowing down is championed.

“I was never methodical at anything, to be honest,” Fox said. “The less time I have to think about it, the less bad stuff can creep in there.”

That was the key to Royal Birkdale. The venue was championed as a test of options. You could hit a driver, 3-wood or 7-iron off most tees. All 14 clubs were in play around the green. Pick your shot – flop, bump or putt all worked pretty much everywhere on the firm, fast, burnt-out turf. That made it a lovely watch for fans, but options breed uncertainty, and uncertainty yields a lack of commitment. Without commitment, bad shots follow.

The best way to avoid all of it? Hit your ball. Find it. Grab another club. Do it again. Quickly. Over and over and over again. The Fox Way.

“It's not that difficult to pick a shot and pick a club,” Fox said. “I get in there, and it all happens quick.”

When Fox made his second bogey in three holes on Sunday to fall two strokes behind Cameron Young with six holes to play, he didn’t wait long enough to doubt himself. When Fox’s ball came to rest against the front edge of a bunker at the 15th, there was no time to wallow in it. He jumped in, hit it backward, then got up-and-down for a bogey that carried more momentum than a run-of-the-mill par ever could. And when he arrived at the 18th tee, needing a birdie to win outright and a par to tie, the decision was already clear in his head. To hell with a playoff, Fox wanted to win it right there.

Instead of iron, Fox pulled driver. As quickly as the club was in his hand, the ball was barrelling down the fairway. He was the first to play from the 18th fairway, and the shot came expeditiously. It was a perfect 9-iron that pitched five yards in front of the hole and rolled out a few feet. Two perfect shots when perfect was required. The only time he let himself linger was when the birdie dropped. He pumped his fists and screamed.

“I feel like even this week I was slowing down just because it was a major,” said Min Woo Lee, who was at the 18th to greet his friend. “He just plays his own game, and that's something that I think everyone can learn off. Whenever a fast player wins, it's the greatest thing ever.”

It’s in direct contrast to Fox’s golfing journey, which has come more slowly than most. He didn’t pick up the game until age 17. He didn’t turn pro until his mid-20s. He was a DP World Tour rookie at age 30 and a PGA TOUR rookie at 37. He won his first event last year, then won again a few weeks later. Now he’s a major winner at 39. There have been only two older major champions in the last decade: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

There’s an admiration among TOUR pros when talking about Fox. The pace is aspirational. Everyone wants to play fast. Few can actually execute on it. It took him a while to commit to it when everyone else around him was playing slow. For as fast as he plays, he still has to wait on his playing partner and the next group. That used to frustrate him, but he’s gotten better and is staying in his own lane.

“I've done 250 tournaments with him, and it's never changed,” said Smith. “People see it as, like, he's flying around there, and he is in a way, but it takes any doubt out.”

Fox reckons there’s only one golfer he’s ever come across who is quicker.

“Renato Paratore,” Fox said. “He used to hit while his name was getting announced on the 1st tee.”

Fox gets plenty of comments from other TOUR players. Sometimes he’s not sure how to take them. At the WM Phoenix Open earlier this year, Fox played alongside world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Zecheng Dou. As they walked off the ninth tee, Scheffler told Fox, “It doesn’t even feel like you’re in the group. It just feels like we’re playing in a two-ball; you hit so fast. It’s just in the air.”

“You guys can tell me if it's a burn or a compliment,” Fox said. “It is just always how I've played. I'm kinda glad I kept that routine down the stretch.”

It’s a compliment, Fox. We can assure you of that.

Sunday at The Open proved it’s a winning formula, too.