In front of a boisterous Royal Birkdale crowd, the final round of the 2026 Open absolutely delivered.Unheralded Ryan Fox of New Zealand drilled a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win by one, capping an eventful championship and a major season not short of surprises.These are the top numbers and notes to know from the final round of the 154th Open Championship.1. Fox is just the third man from New Zealand to win one of the four major championships, joining Sir Bob Charles at the 1963 Open and Michael Campbell, 21 years ago at the U.S. Open. At 39 years old, Fox is the oldest first-time major champion in the men’s game since Henrik Stenson broke through a decade ago at Royal Troon at age 40.Fox had never finished in the top 10 in a major in 28 starts before this week. He’s just the second player in men’s major championship history his age or older to get his first major top 10 in a victory. The other was Aussie Kel Nagle at the 1960 Open Championship, who at 39 was competing in just his fourth major when he beat Arnold Palmer by one stroke at St. Andrews.2. The resilient Kiwi rewrote the record books this weekend at Royal Birkdale. His 18-hole (T85) and 36-hole (T52) positions are both records for a player’s position down the leaderboard in a major championship victory. He is the second player to shoot a round of 62 the week of a major win, joining Xander Schauffele at the 2024 PGA Championship.Fox had a closing 36-hole total score of 130 (62-68). That ties the second lowest score over the final two rounds of a victory in men’s major championship history. Only Collin Morikawa had a better final two rounds at the 2020 PGA at TPC Harding Park (129 strokes).Fox entered the week ranked 56th in the world. He is the first Open champion to be outside the top 50 since Darren Clarke (111th) in 2011.Ryan Fox acknowledges the crowd during the final round of The Open Championship. (Warren Little / Getty Images)3. The birdie Fox rolled in on the 72nd hole to win by one is forever etched in Open Championship lore, but it certainly wasn’t the only important one he rolled in for the week. For the fourth time in the last five years, the Champion Golfer of the Year led all players that week in strokes gained putting. Sunday, Fox picked up 3.94 strokes on the field on the greens, nearly a full shot more than any other player.Fox was also excellent with his iron play, especially on the weekend. His 73.6 greens-in-regulation rate was bettered by only three players who made the cut. Fox hit a whopping 31 approach shots inside 20 feet, tied with Scottie Scheffler for most of any player in the field.4. Cameron Young was the man in the clubhouse to beat for most of the afternoon after posting a brilliant Sunday 64. Young went out in 29 shots, equaling the best final-round front nine score in Open Championship history. Ian Baker-Finch also went out in 29 strokes in the final round of the 1991 Open at Royal Birkdale. Unlike Young, Baker-Finch won that day.Young started the day tied for 20th. Had he completed his enormous comeback, it would have tied the largest final round climb up the leaderboard to win a men’s major championship. At the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah, Hale Irwin was in a tie for 20th with one round to go before beating Mike Donald in a Monday playoff.5. Young was absolutely dialed-in through the bag during his Sunday charge, as no player gained more strokes from tee-to-green in the final round. He hit 10 approach shots inside 20 feet and six inside 10 feet, both one shy of the field-best mark on Sunday.Young has now finished runner-up at The Open twice in the last four years, having come one shot shy of forcing a playoff with Cameron Smith in 2022 at St. Andrews. Young is the first American player to finish runner-up at The Open multiple times in four years or less since Ben Crenshaw did it in consecutive years in 1978 and 1979.Young is just the fourth player in the history of The Open to finish runner-up by one stroke more than once. The others are James Braid (three times), Jack Nicklaus and Dai Rees.Why is this golf course’s bunker shaped like a donut?Gabby Herzig and Lauren Morales-Jones6. Sam Burns was agonizingly close again to winning his first major championship, but heads home with a solo third-place finish. The 29-year-old American, who led by two strokes entering the final round, did not make a birdie Sunday after the second hole.Last summer, Burns led the U.S. Open at Oakmont by one shot entering the final round before ultimately finishing in a tie for seventh place. Burns is the first player to lose an outright 54-hole lead in a major in consecutive seasons since Tom Lehman did it in 1996 and 1997, both times at the U.S. Open.7. Southport erupted Sunday afternoon when native son Tommy Fleetwood jarred a 73-foot birdie putt on the opening hole to kickstart his comeback bid. Through eight holes, Fleetwood was bogey-free and had shaved his deficit from five strokes to begin the day to just two off then-leader SI Woo Kim.But hope quickly faded into heartbreak. Fleetwood made bogeys at Nos. 9, 10 and 11 to slip out of contention. He wound up finishing in a tie for fourth, three shots behind Fox.This is the eighth top-five finish in a major championship for Tommy Fleetwood. Since the beginning of the 2017 season, that is two more than any other player without a win in that span (Justin Rose, six).Tommy Fleetwood came agonizingly close to his first major championship win. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)8. Scottie Scheffler certainly struck the ball well enough this week to win his second consecutive Claret Jug. There is that little matter of putts going in the hole, however. From the seventh hole Thursday through the 11th Sunday – a stretch of 59 holes – Scheffler did not make a single birdie putt of 7 feet or longer. A year after leading the field in strokes gained putting en route to victory, Scottie ranked 60th of 78 players to make the cut this week.Scheffler will finish 2026 with a cumulative score to par in the majors of 20-under, tied with Burns for best of any player. It’s little consolation for a major season without a victory for a player whose eventual place in history will be marked by the four biggest weeks of the year.No player has won The Open in back-to-back years since Padraig Harrington in 2007 and 2008.9. Bidding to become the first player from Asia to win The Open, Si Woo Kim held the outright lead Sunday with eight holes to play. But in the biggest spotlight to date of his career, the 2017 Players champion stumbled. Kim’s normally reliable iron play faltered late, as he lost more than a stroke to the field on his last eight approach shots of the Championship. He played those holes in 4-over-par.Kim, however, continues to have his most consistent season to date as a professional. This is his 10th top-10 finish of the PGA Tour season, tied with Scheffler for the most of any player.10. For just the second time in men’s professional golf history, the four majors were won by players representing four different countries (Northern Ireland, England, USA and New Zealand). The only other time it’s happened is in 2010, when Phil Mickelson (USA), Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland), Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) and Martin Kaymer (Germany) filled out the calendar of champions.Three of the four major winners in the men’s game in 2026 were ranked outside the top 30, the first time that has happened since 2009. That year, all four winners held that distinction.The Masters begins in 263 days.