Ryan Fox wins the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale

Ryan Fox celebrated after winning the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, where the final day was shaped by Sam Burns’ 54-hole lead and a packed leaderboard that refused to settle early. Burns had surged to the top with a Saturday 65, and the closing round began with the tournament still in reach for several names that had hovered near the front for days.

The Open’s own round-three coverage showed Burns leading by two after 54 holes, a margin built in part on the record rounds that Burns and Lucas Herbert posted in round two. That scoring burst gave Sunday a clear pressure point: Burns had to protect a lead that had been earned through one of the championship’s sharpest scoring stretches, while the field behind him needed only one opening to turn the order over.

Tommy Fleetwood remained one of the storylines because Royal Birkdale sits close to where he grew up, a few miles from the links. ESPN’s third-round live coverage noted that Fleetwood stayed in contention, and his local connection gave the chase a more personal edge as the final pairing boards and live updates kept shifting. Rory McIlroy also remained part of the chase, with ESPN describing him as part of the pursuing pack as the back nine pressure built.

The final round did not belong to one name alone for long. Live coverage tracked Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Lucas Herbert and Cameron Young alongside McIlroy and Fleetwood, showing how crowded the race stayed until the decisive stretches on Sunday. The Open’s official leaderboard ultimately showed Ryan Fox celebrating after winning the championship, ending a week that had already been defined by the movement around Burns’ Saturday charge rather than by any single runaway round.

The championship’s official site framed the week with dedicated pages for the field, tee times, qualification and live blog, underscoring the scale of the 154th staging of golf’s original championship. At Royal Birkdale in July 2026, that history played out through a leaderboard that tightened and tilted as the final round unfolded, then finished with Fox on top.