Sunday coverage of the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale
In case you haven't seen on social media, we posted a clip of Ryan Fox's discussion with Andy on the Fried Egg Golf Podcast from March 2024. He discusses his late start to his golf journey.
Awesome, awesome tournament. We'll have plenty more coming between podcasts, the newsletter, and our website.
Thank you to all who followed along and support our coverage.
What a quartet of men's major winners this year:
Rory McIlroy - Masters
Aaron Rai - PGA Championship
Wyndham Clark - U.S. Open
Ryan Fox - Open Championship
Really, really impressive resilience from Fox down the closing stretch. The back nine wasn't giving much, and Fox made four birdies over the final six to get the job done.
Took his medicine on 15 and 17 and kept putting one foot in front of the other. That's as mentally tough as it gets.
What a finish by Fox!
Awesome stuff from Ryan Fox over the past few holes. Shades of Aaron Rai at the PGA, but somehow more satisfying because it hasn't been perfect.
Lots of chat on the telecast about Ryan Fox's "bad breaks" in the bunkers on 15 and 17. We need a big perspective shift on the function of and expectations around hazards in the game.
It was a delight watching Fox lock in and grind out non-disastrous scores on those holes.
I know I over-quote Alister MacKenzie, but he has a good one on this subject: "The successful negotiation of difficulties is a source of pleasure to all classes of players."
Very interested to see Sam Burns approach to the 17th hole down the stretch today. has taken a long iron off the tee the last two rounds leading to layups and two birdies after making 6 in the first round going for it in two shots. will be the crucial hole if he wants to get to -9.
Brendan wrote about 17 already but what a fantastic par 5 this has been to watch all week. (minus stinky TIO)
Amid all the discussion of the new fifth and 15th holes, the changes to the 18th at Birkdale have flown under the radar (at least until Cameron Young's championship-altering bogey an hour ago).
The hole used to have two back tee boxes: one just off the 17th green and another about 80 yards to the left. As a result, the fairway featured an unusual split start, with two prongs feeding into a central stem.
Tom Mackenzie and the club believed this version of the hole had a "schizophrenic" identity. I'm not sure why that's a bad thing (are dual-green holes at Pine Valley and Pacific Dunes also in need of unification?), but whatever. Mackenzie eliminated the right tee box and fairway tongue, creating a more conventional long par 4.
He also added fairway bunkers. A lot of fairway bunkers. On both sides of the fairway. From the tee, the player can have only one thought: aim for the middle. Penal design, baby!
No doubt the hole is harder. Not sure it's better, though.
Already seeing a lot of comparisons between the Bryson and Scottie rulings.
Here's where I land: in both situations, the fundamental value of fair play in golf — playing the ball as it lies — was violated. And in both situations, the rules, as written, were correctly applied.
Rule 8.1, the one Bryson flouted, needs to be enforced more consistently. The TIO rule needs to be rewritten.
I asked Patrick Reed about the Bryson DeChambeau ruling today. He said he did not think Bryson acted intentionally and that players these days are generally careful. But that it was handled correctly based on what he'd seen.
You just have to know when you get out of position, it's just one of those things that you have to be very, very mindful and very careful around the golf ball. And it's just not right around the ball, right? It's with your swing. So it's multiple feet because the club's moving on an arc. But yeah, I mean I think after it all said and done, I feel like it was handled correctly based off of what I've read and what I've seen.
I think people might be kind of underestimating how difficult the back nine is playing right now, as long as the wind stays up. Often, when a leaderboard looks like this, you expect the final winning score to be two to three shots lower than where it is currently (-10). I'm not so sure that will be the case this afternoon.
Here is what I would be watching for:
The key stretch is 14-18. Fourteen (par 5) is a tough but doable birdie. It is not an easy birdie.
No. 15 is borderline unhittable with wind off the left from 240 yards. That is a very, very difficult par.
No. 17 (par 5) is the true birdie hole. Have to birdie that one.
No. 18 is a 500 yard par 4 with a 19-yard wide fairway and bunkers lining both sides. Challenging par.
Anything is possible, but I suspect the winning score will be -10. Cam Young is still alive at -9. A lot rests on Si Woo's shoulders, obviously, but this golf course may play a little more difficult than it looks. The greens are patchy and 17 is the only fairly simple birdie.
After finishing -1 for the championship, Rory issued a tough (but I think fair) verdict on Mackenzie & Ebert's recent renovation of Royal Birkdale:
I feel like with a lot of the changes they made, the greens were raised up and a lot of the fall-offs and stuff, it didn't play like a traditional links course. I didn't feel like you could run the ball up to a lot of greens. There was a lot of stuff where you still had to fly the ball on.
I'm not saying that's the reason I didn't play well this week, just it wasn't — it didn't feel like it was sort of your typical links test, or certainly wasn't the links test that Birkdale presented in 2017.
Si Woo vs. Cameron Young would be one for the sickos.
Parents of young children can relate: My coffee golf watching experience has gotten jammed more than being forced to deal with the NBC experience thanks to morning tv time and Danny Go
No Context Golf
Currently +3 through seven holes and T44, it's going to be a third straight major-less season for Jon Rahm. Majors are very difficult to win. Going major-less for a few years isn't the end of the world for one of the best players in the game. But the bigger concern is that Jon laid eggs in three of the four majors this season.
He was terrible at Augusta, missed the cut from the favorable side of the draw at Shinnecock, and never had much of a chance to win at Birkdale. Aronimink (T2) was a strong performance, absolutely. But you just can't no-show at three of the four majors and be considered one of the best players in the world.
The reality is: Rahm isn't that guy anymore. At least right now. I've made the mistake of considering him a top 3-4 player, including throughout periods of this year, but he just isn't there right now.
He might find his form again some day, and I've always been hesitant to attribute Rahm's downturn to his decision to sign with LIV. But regardless of why, it is clear he is not the player that he was four years ago. Anyone who insists otherwise is delusional.
Huge Tommy moment on one. The putt, the roar, the smile ANNNNND NBC goes straight into commercial 😔
Awesome to see the reception from the Birkdale crowd for the lid worn by RNP's caddie
Rickie Fowler on the setup at Royal Birkdale this week:
On Saturday, I followed Tommy Fleetwood for most of the day, and it reminded me a lot of following Rory McIlroy last year at Portrush. There was so much love and goodwill in the air, you could tell Fleetwood was trying to balance wanting to win the Open for himself, and wanting to win it for all the people who wanted it so badly for him.
It's hard enough to win a major, given everything that needs to go your way. Now add in the collective psyche of an entire country. It's easy to see how that would be overwhelming.
Rory actually talked about wrestling with those feelings in an interview with Sky Sports after his own round. "The support it amazing. it's such a cool feeling. But it can feel like a bit of a burden at times," McIlroy said. "You’re trying to do it for yourself, but you’re also trying to do it for them. At the same time, he's keeps it pretty even keel out there. I'll say this: There wouldn't be one person who wouldn't be happy for him if he were able to get it done."
Golf is an unusual sport because there is so much time for players to think instead of act, and I've always believed Birkdale would be emotionally too much for Fleetwood. The people who believe they're carrying him to victory might actually be weighing him down. In a football match, the crowd's energy can pick you up when you're tired, when you need to run hard for one more ball. But in golf, how do you relax when you know the crowd is going to explode right after impact?
Fleetwood deals with it by not trying to live in a tunnel. He high fives kids on the rope line and smiles when fans crack a funny joke. There is something human in that, but I can't help but wonder at times if that humanity makes it harder.
"For the most part, when things are going good, it's very easy to ride that wave," Jon Rahm said of Fleetwood. [Sunday] if he gets going early, makes two, three birdies the first four or five holes, you can ride that wave, and everybody on the course will know where Tommy is and what's going on."
It's one of the things that makes sports fandom such a volatile thing. It's only fun if you truly care. But if you do care, it can hurt so much more when you're playing for something bigger than yourself.
Don’t want to give NBC too much credit here. But cool to see John Wood walk viewers through the yardage book using different colors on the potential lines and choices available for tee shots on 9th hole
Sidenote: Maybe we should rollback yardage books to not allow pictures to make caddies actually caddie and do their homework?
Types into ChatGPT: How to make putts at Royal Birkdale
I just spent a few minutes debating some of the worst-case scenarios for outcomes and winners with Geoff Shac in the media center.
I am curious what you think the best-case scenarios for today are at Birkdale. In general, I think there are more red flags than exciting possibilities as the final groups start rolling in to the course. But it's been a strong championship regardless.
In terms of memorability and wide-ranging interest, the "performative" prince Bryson winning is probably No. 1. As far as story and narrative goes, Tommy winning is clearly No. 1. After that? It's a range of possibilities likely based on subjective tastes.
Was just a small note in one of the newsletters this week, Billy Foster finishes up his FORTY FIRST Open Championship caddying the week for Matthew Southgate (nice 66 today).
Absolutely mind bending that Billy has worked more Opens than I've been alive. Says he would give away all of his 45 victories on the bag for just one Claret Jug.
The ultimate storyteller, 15 Ryder Cups, loads of wins (maybe more majors if Westy ever got it across the line) A true lover of the craft. Billy Foster easily goes down for me at least on the mount rushmore of modern caddies.
A note from a ballknower that might send shivers up the spine of NBC executives and podcasters alike: "Keep an eye on Kobori btw. Has been dominating the sandbelt his entire amateur career."
Prepare yourselves for Champion Golfer of the Year, Kazuma Kobori!
For the first time this week, they have really pushed the tee back on the new par-3 15th, which will play at 241 yards on Sunday. That was the intent, at least for this championship, when it was built. The 16th is pushed up just a little bit and in talking with Tom Mackenzie yesterday, he was hoping that might play as drivable perhaps once this week. It really needs a supporting wind for that. He was also really hoping to see the back tee and ground run-up used at the 15th.
After the controversial 15th, I do think the finishing three are great for a championship close. Specifically, I wrote a bit about the 17th and what makes that so interesting as a spot for potential movement late in the championship. You can read that here.
Good morning and welcome to Fried Egg Golf's final round coverage of the 2026 Open Championship! Here are some storylines I'm watching today:
Can Sam Burns finally get over the major hump?
I can’t wait to watch how the crowd rallies behind local and fan-favorite Tommy Fleetwood.
Ryan Fox and Lucas Herbert are in the mix for their first major top 10s. Same with Jackson Suber, who’s making just his third major start.
The last 11 Open champions have been within four shots of the lead entering the final round. If history repeats itself, here’s who’s in the mix: Sam Burns, Ryan Fox, Si Woo Kim, Ryan Gerard, Lucas Herbert, Ludvig Aberg, Bryson DeChambeau, and Jackson Suber.
Six shots is a lot to overcome, but I’d love to see Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry, or Xander Schauffele post a number and really put some pressure on the leaders down the stretch.
I'm excited to see how young talents Chris Gotterup (Even), Pierceson Coody (1 under), and Alex Fitzpatrick (1 under) finish out the weekend.