Signature Scroll: Was that the weirdest major season ever?

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Ryan Fox went out and earned that. What a crazy finish …

Fox caps off wild major season

SOUTHPORT, England – For the better part of a decade, we were spoiled at major championships.

We watched Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka and Jordan Spieth go through periods of transcendent dominance. We witnessed Rory McIlroy win the career Grand Slam. We enjoyed young superstars-in-the-making in Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas grab their first (and second) major titles. We were privileged to see old titans in Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson win their last.

We’ve been treated to a certain type of major champion for many years running. Boy, did we break the mold this year.

After years of the stars dominating, 2026 had us watching Ryan Fox and Aaron Rai win their first majors with little warning they were about to do so. We saw Wyndham Clark leave the U.S. Open a hero, 12 months after he left it as a martyr. We watched Rory McIlroy win the Masters (again) with one hand tied behind his back, unable to drive it effectively.

To be clear: This year's majors weren't any better or worse, but they sure were more unexpected.

That was my prevailing thought as I stood in the 18th bleachers at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, stunned at what I was watching. When Fox missed his birdie putt at the par-5 17th, I was sure there were only two outcomes: Fox would make par at 18 and force a playoff or Cameron Young would win outright, with Fox understandably struggling on the most difficult hole on property.

Within minutes, Fox was holding the claret jug.

At that point, I wondered to myself: Is this the weirdest major season ever?

I’m sure the golf historians that subscribe will throw out a litany of years that rival 2026, but in recent history, I couldn’t name one. Was Jimmy Walker and Danny Willett more improbable in 2016? Or Darren Clarke, Keegan Bradley and Charl Schwartzel in 2011? At a minimum, this year belongs alongside them.

What’s more: None of this year's wins felt fluky. They weren’t the result of someone else’s epic collapse. These were just unexpected winners who thoroughly outplayed their opponents. Winners who seized the moment with other big names around them.

Fox’s victory was remarkable. With six holes left, he trailed Young by two strokes. He beat Young by one, despite a bogey in that stretch. He made birdie at the most difficult closing hole in The Open rota (for my money) with three perfect shots.

Fox 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. Now he’s a major winner at 39.

What a story. What a conclusion.

So long, 2026 major season. You were incredible, and you were weird.

Playing through

• ⏱️ Ryan Fox needed just 22 seconds after Sam Burns holed out to hit his birdie putt to win The Open. We timed it. ...
• 🇮🇹 Fox wasn't the only international winner today. Italy's Stefano Mazzoli captured the Corales Puntacana Championship in just his third TOUR start. …
• 🤏 Cameron Young nearly pulled off one of the biggest major comebacks of all time. Read more on his near-miss here. ...
• 💰 Ryan Fox won $3.2 million with his win at Royal Birkdale. What did the rest of the field earn?

Burns fails to meet major moment ... again

For a fleeting moment Sunday, it looked as though Sam Burns had finally outrun the label.

The 54-hole leader arrived to Royal Birkdale with a two-shot cushion, and he wasted little time stretching it to three with a birdie at the par-4 second. At 11-under par, Burns looked poised to complete a remarkable week that began an unsteady 3-over 73 on Thursday and was rescued by a record-tying 62 on Friday. Instead, the championship unraveled almost as quickly as it came together.

Burns bogeyed Nos. 4, 5 and 6 in succession, surrendering the lead before the front nine was complete. He never made another birdie, grinding through a joyless Sunday 73 to finish 8 under and alone in third, one shot behind Cameron Young and two back of champion Ryan Fox.

It marked the continuation of an uncomfortable pattern.

Burns was one lip-out away from forcing a playoff at this year’s U.S. Open, where he finished runner-up to Wyndham Clark. Earlier this spring, he entered the final round of the Masters within striking distance before fading. This Sunday marked yet another major championship where Burns began the day with destiny squarely in front of him but watched it drift away.

The irony is that Burns nearly wasn’t here at all. But his daughter's premature arrival – and his wife's insistence that he play The Open – followed by stellar play on Friday and Saturday set him up for a storybook ending. Instead, his name will go into the history books for an unfortunate statistic.

According to Justin Ray, Burns is the first player since Tom Lehman in 1996 and 1997 to lose an outright 54-hole lead in back-to-back major championships. For a player with five PGA TOUR victories and undeniable talent, the résumé remains absent of the game’s biggest prize.

By now, no one will be surprised if Burns finds himself on more major championship leaderboards. Unfortunately, we might be shocked if he closes one out.

– Jimmy Reinman

Parting shots

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The moments I will remember most this Open belong to Tommy Fleetwood. His 73-foot birdie at the first on Sunday was everything you want golf to be. So was his send-off at the 18th. Playing in front of your hometown must be so cool. It also had to be a heck of a burden. Fleetwood handled it well. He also probably should have won. Just a few too many mistakes dropped him into a tie for fourth.
• 🫤 Rory McIlroy hung over his putter, watching his birdie attempt slide by the fifth hole. He had just driven the green at the par 4 and ran his 40-foot eagle attempt 8 feet by. Now he was settling for par. The sequence summed up McIlroy’s week, just a bit too sloppy to ever play a factor. He finished 1 under, tied for 40th.
• 🇺🇲 Scottie Scheffler will go without a major title in 2026. That was not on anyone’s bingo card at the start of the year. He performed as well as you could without lifting a trophy, though, notching three top fives. His putter was the issue this week, with whiffs of 2023 Scheffler.
• 👏 Si Woo Kim's back-nine 40 was disappointing, but it’s worth praising progress. This was his first true contention at a major and his second top-10 finish in 36 major starts.
• 👍 I saw a lot of armchair quarterbacks dissecting Cameron Young’s choice to push for the green from the fairway bunker at 18. I don’t want to hear it. At that point in the tournament, it sure looked like he needed to be 10 or 11 under to have a chance. As Fox said later: “I'd live with the consequences if I stuffed it up.” That’s what Young was doing, too.
• 📈 It was not the final round Ryan Gerard wanted, a 2-over 72 without a birdie, but I remain bullish on him. He’s a proper golfer and a win, maybe a big one, is coming soon.

The PGA TOUR season continues with a three-week sprint to the FedExCup Playoffs. We'll be back Scrolling at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.