America 250: Bobby Jones
Bobby Jones was born on March 17, 1902, in Atlanta, Georgia, and became one of the greatest novice golfers in history. As a teenager, he reached the third round of the US Amateur at age 14, showing early promise. He went on to win 13 major championships, all as a rookie, a record that still stands. In 1930, Jones won the
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Ryan Fox missed an easy hole shot at Royal Birkdale while trying to win the Open Championship. But, when it mattered most, he drilled the hardest hole in the road to capture the Claret Jug.
Tied with clubhouse leader Cameron Young at 9-under, the 39-year-old New Zealander needed a birdie on the 18th to win the tournament after failing to birdie the par-5 17th hole.
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After hitting his drive down the last fairway, Fox reached within 12 feet and chipped his birdie on the edge of the cup to win the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. He finished at 10-under, one shot ahead of Young and two off 54-hole leader Sam Burns.
Ryan Fox celebrates after making birdie at 18 to win the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. (Photos by Peter Byrne/PA via Getty Images)
But his victory may mean more to international golf than anything else.
Going into the final round, everyone at Royal Birkdale was chasing American Sam Burns, who was looking for his first championship victory.
Burns, 10 under, leads Fox and South Korea’s Si Woo Kim by two shots. American Ryan Gerard and Australian Lucas Herbert were sent back, while big names like Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler and Ludvig Åberg sat a few shots back but were in hiding.
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Burns secured that advantage with one of the best two-round sweeps in major league history.
After opening the tournament with a three-over 73, Burns tied the men’s major with an 8-under 62 on Friday. He followed that up with a five-under 65 in the third round, giving him a total of 127 over 36 holes, the lowest score in consecutive rounds in men’s major championship history.
And Burns wasn’t alone in declining historically.
Herbert also shot a 62 on Friday, while Fox matched the number on Saturday to top 50 on the leaderboard and earn a spot alongside Burns in Sunday’s final pairing. Three players had tied the major tournament record over the course of two days at Royal Birkdale.
Burns also knew better than most how a promising major league Sunday could turn into misery.
Sam Burns came close again, but just fell short in another big contest. (Photos by David Davies/PA)
He played 54 holes at the 2025 US Open at Oakmont before shooting a final round 78 and falling to seventh place. A year later, Burns nearly pulled off a furious Sunday comeback at Shinnecock Hills, but his birdie on the 72nd hole stopped inches short and left him a shot behind Wyndham Clark.
Now, Burns had another chance.
And he initially seemed ready to dominate the competition.
The 29-year-old American birdied the second hole to get to 11-under and extend his lead.
Then everything changed.
Burns made three consecutive bogeys on Nos. 4, 5 and 6, coughing up his entire lead in the space of three holes. The player who started Sunday scoring two goals suddenly found himself in a hurry to stay in contention.
And as Burns stumbled, another American came charging through the pack.
Cam Young, like Burns, was already familiar with heartbreak on the front line. He finished one shot behind Cameron Smith in the 2022 Open Championship despite shooting a final round 65 and making an eagle on the 72nd hole.
Young started the final round seven shots off the lead, seemingly out of contention, but quickly turned into a spectacular front-nine 29. He made four birdies over his first five holes and finally reached 10-under with one birdie at the 17th.
Then came trouble.
Young drove into the fairway on the final hole and failed to clear the hard face on his second shot. He finally escaped with a bogey, but posted a stunning six-under 64 to lead the clubhouse at 9-under.
But then Ryan Fox came charging.
Fox birdied the 13th and 14th holes to catch Young at nine-under. The New Zealander had a bad break with his shot on the newly rebuilt 3rd 15th and couldn’t maintain par. However, he bounced back with a birdie on No. 16 to tie Young again.
Young found himself in the awkward position of hanging around and just waiting to see if his score was enough.
Cameron Young and her boyfriend, Kyle Sterbinsky, watch the final round of the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. (Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR)
Fox caught another bad break on the par-5 17th hole. He chose to hit the iron to avoid the fairway bunkers, but his ball managed to land in one of those bunkers after going over 320 yards. He still managed to give himself a good bird’s eye view, but he missed being tied up.
Burns also failed to make birdie on No. 17, the hole that played easily in Sunday’s final round. That meant Fox was tied with Young and Burns had the toughest hole on the course, the par-4 18th, looming.
Fox made it look difficult, blasting his tee shot down the middle of the fairway before sticking the iron to within 12 feet and birdieing himself to win the Open.
Burns played the hole well, too, but not enough. His approach ended up 30 meters from the cup and the American couldn’t convert, adding another call to his major tournament CV.
That set the stage for Fox. Make the putt, win the Open. Don’t miss out and go to the playoffs against Cam Young.
And he buried it to bring more misery to Young and more misery to American golf.
Because Sunday’s final round was about whether Burns, Young or another contender would walk away with the Claret Jug.
It was also about how American golf has really started to dominate the sport.
Not long ago, that control seemed perfect.
Since Brooks Koepka’s victory in the 2023 PGA Championship, Americans have won seven majors in a row. Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau all followed Koepka during the race that ended with Schauffele completing the American sweep of the 2024 majors at Royal Troon.
Rory McIlroy finally ended the streak with his incredible win at the 2025 Masters.
Even then, it doesn’t feel like the power has changed at all.
Scheffler won the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. JJ Spaun took the US Open at Oakmont. Scheffler then held The Open at Royal Portrush.
The Americans had won 10 of the 11 major championships.
It was not a rivalry then. It was dominance.
Then the tide turned.
Tommy Fleetwood finally earned his first PGA Tour victory by winning the 2025 Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.
One month later, Europe embarrassed the United States on American soil in the Ryder Cup.
The final score, 15-13, made the contest seem much closer than it really was. Europe entered Sunday’s singles with an 11½-4½ advantage and had already reduced the final session to little more than a desperate American attempt to avoid total humiliation.
European players celebrate with the trophy after winning the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Things didn’t get any better when the calendar changed to 2026.
McIlroy successfully defended his Masters title, while England’s Aaron Rai followed with his first PGA Championship victory. European golfers had won the first two majors of the year.
Wyndham Clark finally stopped the bleeding by winning his second US Open at Shinnecock Hills.
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An American victory at Royal Birkdale would give US golfers their final two major tournaments of the season and provide real evidence that the momentum has begun to reverse.
A victory by a non-American would leave Clark as the only US major champion for 2026, marking the first time since 2014 that Americans have won one of the four men’s medals.
And the latest is what happened when Ryan Fox became the second New Zealander to win the Open and the third New Zealander to win a major men’s golf tournament.
Clark’s US Open victory stands as the only major American tournament of the season, the first time since 2014 that American men have failed to win at least two majors.
Europe humiliated the United States at Bethpage. Fleetwood took the FedEx trophy. European players hold the Masters and PGA Championship. And the non-American ended the season by lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale.
It added to American golf’s toughest championship season in 12 years.
And the next Ryder Cup is played at Adare Manor in Ireland, where the United States will try to conquer European soil for the first time since 1993.
Based on the past year, there is little reason to believe that the drought is about to end.
