Proud Bob Charles hails 'refreshing' fellow Kiwi Open champion Ryan Fox

Bob Charles landed his win in the game’s oldest major at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1963 and enjoyed watching from afar as Fox matched the feat a bit further down the Lancashire coast at Royal Birkdale.

In a game where slow play has become a real headache, Fox is one of the players who gets on with things, needing just 30 seconds from playing partner Sam Burns finishing off in the final round to holing his winning own putt on the 72nd hole.

“Ryan is a refreshing player,” Charles, who is 90, told The New Zealand Herald. “He plays the way the game should be played, the way it used to be played and should be played. And that is: You get on with it and you don’t spend half an hour lining up every putt.

“I think it’s great to see somebody who gets on with the business instead of just walking around. Let’s hope that Ryan can be a great example of how the game should be played now, even when you’re playing for, you know, $100 million!

“I think it’s absolutely great for Ryan, of course, obviously, and it’s great for the game of golf, particularly here in New Zealand. I’m proud of what he did, what he achieved

“I’m watching this in colour. In my day, it was all black and white. I’m watching every hole that he’s playing. In my day, they only had about the last three or four holes.”

Fox, who is up from 56th to 22nd in the Official World Golf Ranking, birdied the last hole to pip Cameron Young, who’d set the clubhouse target after signing off with a best-of-the-day 64.

“I had to hole a four-footer to tie and of course he, what did he hole? It must have been a 10-footer to win,” added Charles. “I think all New Zealand golfers will be proud of his effort and let’s hope that it makes a lot of younger people consider getting into the golf game.”