'I see things fast' - Is Ryan Fox's speed his greatest strength?

See it, hit it. Ryan Fox left the sporting public marvelling at his proficiency for combining execution with speed under the highest of pressure on his way to victory at The 154th Open.

Just 22 seconds after final-round playing partner Sam Burns made a par to miss out on a potential play-off, Fox defied his nerves to make an 11-foot birdie to claim a one-shot victory over Cameron Young and with it claim the Claret Jug.

To those within the game, his on-course fast and furious nature is nothing new. It has been a trademark of the New Zealander's game for many years.

While it may be refreshing, it is all he has ever known. The son of former All Black Grant Fox, and grandson of late New Zealander cricketer Merv Wallace, sport has played a big part in that since his childhood.

"I was always that way as a kid. I see things fast," he said in a press conference on Sunday at Royal Birkdale after becoming Champion Golfer of the Year.

"I was the same when I was playing cricket growing up. I played almost every sport growing up, and tennis I wanted to hit the ball hard, and cricket I wanted to hit the ball hard.

"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."

Built like a rugby player, Fox is one of the longest on Tour, but arguably his greatest strength is his speed.

Fox revealed Renato Paratore, a two-time DP World Tour winner from Italy, is the only player he's played with who is quicker.

He also spoke of how Scottie Scheffler said earlier this year that playing with him in a three-ball felt like he was in a two-ball such was his speed of play.

In a light-hearted exchange with the media, Fox joked: "I can't drive fast in New Zealand because we get too many speeding tickets.

"It's just always how I've seen it on the golf course.

"If you tried to slow me down and make me do everything slowly, I think I'd be pretty useless, to be honest."

At 39, Fox is the oldest first-time Major Champion since Henrik Stenson won the Open Championship at Royal Troon in 2016.

Having started playing golf 13, and having then only turned professional aged 25, Fox is a late bloomer.

A product initially of the PGA Tour of Australasia, where he initially struggled and contemplated "giving it up", he graduated onto the DP World Tour from the HotelPlanner Tour in 2016.

Winner of the World Super 6 Perth in 2019, he won twice on the DP World Tour in 2022 to finish second on the Race to Dubai before a year later he became a Rolex Series winner at the BMW PGA Championship.

Just like at Birkdale, he produced a final-hole birdie to seal victory at Wentworth Club.

That triumphed helped him secure dual membership with the PGA TOUR in 2024.

After initially finding the adjustment to life stateside with his wife and two daughters and the travel implications, he won twice in as many months on the PGA TOUR in 2025.

But becoming a Major winner takes his career to another level, and he made it happen.

"When I turned pro, I think the goal was just to get on a major tour, to be honest.

"I think I said to my team [on Saturday] night at dinner, if you'd have given me my career up till yesterday when I turned pro, I'd have jumped at that. I don't know what to think now, to be honest.

"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.

"To be here as the Champion Golfer of the Year is a bit crazy. It's surreal."

He added: "I was a rookie on the DP World Tour at 30. I was a rookie on the PGA TOUR at 37 and now a major champion at 39.

"I'm definitely not following the trend at the moment. But if I can keep getting better a little bit every year, I'll be pretty happy."

After a bogey at the 11th dropped him to seven under, and with American Young in the clubhouse at nine under after a 64 and conditions only becoming tougher as the afternoon progressed, Fox birdied four of his final six holes to claim a dramatic finish.

But, amid all the duly deserved praise for his brilliant birdie at the last, Fox credits his bogey at the par-three 15th after his tee shot hit the bank of a greenside bunker and came to rest near the edge, forcing him to play out sideways, as instrumental.

"When I got there [to the greenside bunker], it was probably worse than I thought it was or thought it was going to be," he said.

"Sometimes bogeys are good - I felt a whole lot better walking off that green making bogey that way than probably even if I'd have made par, to be honest.

"I hit a couple of really good shots down the stretch obviously to get it done. I think that was a pretty pivotal hole for me, 15."

Now after the hard, and fast, yards, comes some time for celebration, with Fox timing his Major breakthrough so that he will defend his title next summer at St Andrews, considered by many as the home of golf and the scene of his 2022 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship victory.

You can watch Fox in action on the DP World Tour in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club from September 17-20. To buy your tickets, click here.