Golf Briefing ⛳ | This is The Athletic’s newsletter for the 2026 Open Championship. Sign up here to receive the Golf Briefing directly in your inbox.Good afternoon and evening! Welcome to our last major championship newsletter of the 2026 men’s season — we understand if you’re just catching up here after the World Cup final.I’m Alex, and Caoimhe O’Neill will be with us from Royal Birkdale in a moment. The final leaderboard is here, and it looks like this at the top:
Ryan Fox (-10)
Cameron Young (-9)
Sam Burns (-8)
The Jug: Fox wins with epic display of resilience Ryan Fox, the 39-year-old Kiwi who had never finished better than 16th in a major championship, lifted the Claret Jug on Sunday evening. Somehow, that major history undersells how improbable his victory at The Open Championship felt as his final round was going on.Fox was in contention all week and played in the final group with Sam Burns, who had a two-shot lead on him (and the field) entering the day. But as the round wore on, Fox looked unlikely to catch the shock leader Cameron Young, who had gotten to -9 with a 6-under 64 that bumped him from a tie for 20th to the clubhouse lead.As Fox was chasing Young, he endured two of the worst breaks of the day in a three-hole stretch:
