This year’s Open Championship winner Ryan Fox went viral for the emotional FaceTime call he shared with his wife and daughters after his hard-earned victory — just don’t ask him to describe it.
“I don’t have a clue what we said for the most part,” Fox, 39, exclusively told Us on Tuesday, July 21. “My head was all over the place. The biggest thing is, my kids had said, ‘Dad, can you bring us back a trophy?’ Earlier in the week I’m going, ‘Yeah, I’ll try.’ Dad actually does get to bring back the trophy now. That’s pretty cool.”
Fox, a New Zealand native, and his wife, Anneke Ryff, have been married since 2019 and share two daughters: Isobel, 5, and Margaret, 3.
While details of the FaceTime call are hazy, Fox said his wife was “emotional” after she watched the golfer win his first major title on TV from their Florida home.
“[Golfer] Matt Pavon and his wife were at our house, I’ve known Matt for a long time,” Fox said. “I think she was really happy to have someone else there with her. They were [also] on the phone a little bit, just to see them. Seeing them lose their minds about what just happened was pretty incredible.”
Fox continued, “I probably chatted with my wife about five or six times that night at various stages of working out what had just happened and various stages of drunkenness. It was pretty surreal to be honest. It’s going to be a big change for our family. But this stuff, you dream of it. If you dream of it and it actually happens, you’ve got to be prepared for whatever comes with it.”
As it turns out, there were talks about the entire family traveling to the 2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, but logistics got in the way.
“It’s a shame, they normally travel most of the time and actually decided they weren’t going to come to the UK this time,” Fox explained. “We did the trip last year and it was tough taking the kids across the pond for a couple of weeks and getting them out of their routine. They decided to stay home in Florida.”
He continued, “I think there was a little bit of FOMO that happened last week. But we get a chance to go back to the Open now for quite a few years. I’m pretty sure if [my wife] hasn’t booked flights to St. Andrews next year, she’s definitely had a look for them already. The family is not going to miss out.”
