Ryan Fox always wanted to be a sportsman, but golf wasn’t always his first option – or even his second.

His third choice was the charm, and it’s leading him to great heights in professional golf.

Fox earned his second PGA TOUR title within a month in a dramatic playoff Sunday at the RBC Canadian Open, outlasting Sam Burns with a birdie on the fourth extra hole after the duo matched 18-under 262 at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, a first-year host venue for Canada’s national open. On that fourth playoff hole, Fox striped a 3-wood from 259 yards to 7 feet on the water-guarded par-5 18th – which he later described as the shot of his life – setting up a two-putt birdie to win after Burns lipped out a 7-foot birdie try.

Fox, who earned four DP World Tour titles before taking up TOUR membership in 2024 through the DP World Tour Eligibility Ranking, has now won twice in his last four TOUR starts, both in playoffs. He won last month’s ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic with a chip-in birdie from behind the green on the first extra hole, qualifying for the following week’s PGA Championship with the victory. Now he’s headed to Oakmont for next week’s U.S. Open by moving into the top 60 on the Official World Golf Ranking (he entered the RBC Canadian Open at No. 75 on the world ranking). These are heady times for the affable 38-year-old, and even if he might seem like an overnight sensation in the TOUR world, he has built toward this moment for some time.

Fox didn’t pursue golf seriously until he was in his late teens; he has said that at 18, he rarely broke 80 aside from at his home course, an age when most of his peers were onward to college golf and quickly developing a pro-ready skill set. As a kid, he was mostly focused on rugby and cricket, which was understandable considering his family’s pedigree in the sporting world. His dad Grant Fox is one of New Zealand’s greatest sportsmen who holds the record for most points scored in a Rugby World Cup tournament. His grandpa Merv Wallace (who passed away in 2008) was an accomplished New Zealand cricketer and Test match captain.

In some ways, Fox might have been playing from behind, but he had a unique advantage as he developed his golf game to compete at the highest level. Grant Fox spent ample time caddying for his son in his early days as a competitive golfer, helping the younger Fox fine-tune his mental game and preparation techniques. There are plenty of differences between high-level rugby and golf, of course, but there are several similarities, too. From his dad, Fox learned to focus on perfecting the small things (as much as possible), visualizing a target and staying true to a consistent work ethic. After his dramatic victory Sunday in Canada, Fox spoke of his dad’s belief that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

“He would always drill into me, if you work hard, no matter what happens, you can always be satisfied with the result,” Fox said Sunday evening. “Whether you make it or not, whether you succeed or not, you can always look back with your head held high.

“Dad made sure I understood that concept pretty early. I always wanted to be a sportsman growing up. Rugby and cricket were my two main sports, and golf came in a little bit later, but I always kept the same theory, or tried to use the same theory all the way through.”

Fox has fine-tuned his talent across the past several years, and it’s paying off this spring. It was decades in the making but has shown to be worth the wait. Fox, born in 1987, made his first cut in a world ranking-recognized event in 2011, and he cut his teeth on a variety of circuits including the Charles Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and Challenge Tour – paving his way to the DP World Tour. He captured his first of four DP World Tour titles in 2019, validating his ability and potential to ascend into the game’s elite tier. He secured PGA TOUR membership at No. 2 on the 2023 DP World Tour Eligibility Ranking, comprised of players on the DP World Tour’s season-long Race to Dubai not previously exempt on TOUR.

Fox has featured as high as No. 23 on the Official World Golf Ranking, but he had fallen outside the top 100 before last month’s win in Myrtle Beach. Had all the travel through the years worn on him, and were the challenges of playing on the PGA TOUR proving to be too much? He narrowly kept full status for 2025 at No. 118 on last year’s FedExCup Fall standings – the final year of a four-decade run where the top 125 kept full status (effective this year, only the top 100 on the FedExCup Fall will retain full status). Had that finish come a year later, he would have lost a full card.

In the past month, Fox has combated all those questions and shown he can be one of the world’s best players. He now stands No. 25 on the season-long FedExCup standings and is up to No. 32 on the world ranking. He has joined Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Ben Griffin as the only players with multiple PGA TOUR wins to this point in 2025. He could be a dark-horse selection at Oakmont, a brawny venue that requires an even keel and a healthy dose of self-love.

Fox knew his progression to this level would take patience and a long-term vision. He said as much in his winner’s press conference at the RBC Canadian Open, alluding to the twists and turns of playing in Sunday’s final pairing while chasing Burns’ clubhouse lead (Burns carded a final-round 62 from nearly two hours in front of Fox; the New Zealander then made three birdies in his last five holes to match Burns’ 72-hole total). He might as well have been describing his journey to this point, though. Some are speculating that Oakmont could present one of the toughest major-championship tests of the modern era, but Fox didn’t seem too concerned Sunday. “It sounds like it’s going to be a proper beat-up,” Fox said. “It will be fun.”

That attitude has served him well to this point – and will continue to do so.