Qualifiers for all 2026 Signature Events, THE PLAYERS and majors

It’s Ryan Fox who puts the exclamation point on the 2026 majors with his one-stroke victory at The Open Championship.

Given that the native of New Zealand is 39 years of age and hadn’t cracked the top 15 in any of his 28 career starts in all majors prior to his breakthrough victory in the series at Royal Birkdale, that particular punctuation mark is appropriate.

Fox was one of three in the tournament to match the all-time, 18-hole aggregate in a major with an 8-under 62 in his third round. That lifted him 50 spots and into a share of second place entering Sunday’s finale in which he was paired with 54-hole leader Sam Burns, himself an author of a 62 in the second round. (Lucas Herbert also spun a 62 in the second round en route to a T6.)

Fox closed with a 68 to post 10-under 270 and clip Cameron Young by one. Young signed his card from the 14th-to-last pairing on Sunday, so the possibilities at The 154th Open were, well, wide open.

With this career-defining victory, Fox now is exempt into The Open through his age-60 season of 2047. He’s also locked up spots in the next five editions of the other three majors and THE PLAYERS Championship, and his PGA TOUR membership exemption as The Open champ extends through 2031.

All kind of consolation prizes abound below Fox. They include exemptions into the 2027 Masters for the other four golfers who finished inside the top four, although only Tommy Fleetwood hadn’t yet officially locked up a spot. Additionally, all 13 inside the top 10 can make travel plans for St. Andrews where The Open will be contested next year.

Fox is the third Kiwi in history to win a men’s major. He joins Bob Charles, who prevailed at the 1963 Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and Michael Campbell, winner of the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

With Fox joining PGA champion Aaron Rai, this is the first season since 2023 that there have been multiple first-time major champions in the same year. And with Rory McIlroy having won the Masters, this is the first year since 2014 that as many as three internationals have picked off victories in the series. McIlroy’s wins at The Open and the PGA Championship that year were preceded by Martin Kaymer's triumph at the U.S. Open.

NOTE: The opening list of qualifiers for the 2027 season will publish in the coming weeks.