Ryan Fox Won The Open. Bryson Just Made Noise.

Bryson DeChambeau is a name that has become a bit like Voldemort for me. It seems like I can’t write a single article without mentioning his name, and it’s usually for something controversial, if not outright, objectively bad. Because of that, I want to spend most of this time talking about Ryan Fox, because it wasn’t just his play that shined through this week.

I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about Ryan before The Open. He’s a 39-year-old New Zealander that plays quickly and tries not to think about his shots very much. He’s had a good career, but not exactly a household name, which is a bummer, because he seems just so… relatable. He had no drama this week, played hard, and came out with a solid victory.

Ryan Fox’s Record-Setting Win

Like I said, we’re covering Ryan first. If you’re just here to see me berate Bryson again, you can click here.

To begin, Ryan looked to be in trouble after the first round, shooting a two-over 72 and not improving by too awfully much the second day, getting back to even and skating by the cut line by just two strokes. His rocket to the top started on Saturday in the third round, where he shot a record-tying eight-under 62. He’s now the oldest and 8th player to shoot the score in a major. What’s funny to me is that he doesn’t rank near the top of almost any data-golf category. 27th in driving distance, 130th in driving accuracy, 113th in greens-in-regulation percentage, and so on. I’m telling you, I believe wholeheartedly in intangibles, like we talked about from a different perspective with Scottie Scheffler’s dry-spell here, and Ryan Fox is loaded with them.

Take for example Ryan’s pace of play—it’s notoriously fast. When asked about it, he explained that “The less time I have to think about it, the less bad stuff can creep in there.” After his victory, the man had his Claret Jug filled with wine in no-time-flat. This Open was full of drama and mess, and he seemed to totally dissociate from it all and just stuck to his grind. Not only can you see why that’d help him succeed from a logistical standpoint, but it seems that he won some hearts because of it as well, including mine. His win was great from a play perspective, but even better as a good underdog story where he proved that just playing your game is a real strategy.

Why Ryan’s Win Makes Bryson Look Even Worse

Golf media, of course, was filled more with coverage of Bryson’s nonsense than praise of Ryan this week because he sure made every effort to make a fool of himself—but luckily, the fact that humble ole' Ryan Fox won in the manner that he did really cemented Bryson's reputation as a child.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about at all, Bryson was docked 2 strokes for improving his lie in some tall grass in the second round while he was in great position near the top of the leaderboard, but threw an absolute hissy-fit both during the interaction with an official and after. The grown man flailed his arms, could be seen mouthing about how he wouldn’t play the next day, and allegedly threatened to call the President… of the United States per The Guardian. Following the round, he wanted to appeal and refused to declare whether he’d be withdrawing or not, leaving third-round tee times in doubt.

Now, outbursts aren't uncommon for Bryson, and he usually gets plenty of hate for them. But, what made this one so damning and comically embarrassing is the fact that the guy who won—Ryan Fox—displayed essentially the exact opposite behavior. When you see that the winner humbly talked about how he doesn’t think much about things, he plays quick, and is happy with his career, and you see Bryson losing his mind, you start wondering what the goal of his fit was. If the ruling was overturned would he have won? Not according to the end result. Did he think golf consumers everywhere would say he was screwed? Seems mostly untrue. Did he draw a bunch of attention? Ding ding ding!

Closing Thoughts

Frankly, I don’t think this article is a negative. I think it highlighted the best parts of golf—an older underdog with humble personality and play reaps the reward of a win while Bryson showed that childish outrage, believe it or not, doesn’t result in a win. What I say is congratulations to Ryan Fox on a good win, and you’ve gained a new fan.