Cameron Young had done everything he could. He had shot 64 in the final round of the 154th Open Championship, posted 9 under par, and gone to the clubhouse at Royal Birkdale to wait.
Ryan Fox came to the last needing a birdie, and made one.
One stroke, one hole
Fox birdied the 72nd hole to win by a single shot, finishing at 10 under par for the week. A closing 68 was enough only because of what he did at the end of it, and there was no playoff. The Claret Jug went to a 39-year-old New Zealander who had never won a major.
Young's 64 had been the round of the day and, for a while, looked likely to be the round of the championship. He finished second. Sam Burns, who had led going into Sunday, closed with a 72 and finished third at 8 under.
The 62 that made it possible
Sunday's finish is what will be replayed, but the tournament turned on Saturday. Fox went out in the third round and shot 62, tying the record for the lowest round in a men's major championship.
It moved him from the margins of the leaderboard into the final pairing. Without it, the birdie at the last would have been a footnote in somebody else's championship.
Third from a country of five million
Fox becomes the third man from New Zealand to win a major, after Bob Charles, who won the Open in 1963, and Michael Campbell, who won the U.S. Open in 2005.
That is a thin roll for a country that produces more than its share of athletes, and it explains something about the scale of the achievement at home. Fox's father, Grant Fox, was an All Blacks fly-half who kicked New Zealand to the 1987 Rugby World Cup, which makes this a rare second act in a sporting family better known for a different game entirely.
The American drought continues
For the American contingent, the week ends as several recent majors have. Young remains without a major despite another close finish, and Burns fell away on the final day after leading.
The Open now leaves Royal Birkdale with a champion almost nobody picked, which is roughly what links golf in July is for.
