Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Ryan Fox holds the Claret Jug after winning The Open Championship golf tournament at Royal Birkdale
Ryan Fox certainly earned the right to celebrate after winning his first major by topping the field at the British Open. However, he still had to stick to his travel plans and used the case containing the Claret Jug as his carry-on following the biggest triumph of his career.
Last week, 156 golfers descended upon Royal Birkdale for the 154th edition of the British Open. The list of favorites was topped by the usual suspects, and sportsbooks listed Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy as the two most likely victors (around +750 and +950, respectively) before things officially got underway.
If you were examining those odds, you had to scroll a long way before you came across Ryan Fox, the New Zealand native who was sitting between 150-to-1 and 200-to-1 on most platforms.
The 39-year-old had his fair share of victories in the nearly 15 years he’s been making a living as a professional golfer (including a couple of wins on the PGA Tour), but there wasn’t any reason to believe he’d emerge as a contender at a tournament where he missed the cut last year.
That was still the case when the weekend rolled around when you consider he was eight strokes behind the leader when play got underway on Saturday, but Fox kicked things into high gear during his last two rounds en route to the first major of his career.
He took home the $3.2 million check reserved for the winner, and he probably had to deal with the ramifications of the celebration after waking up at the crack of dawn to catch a flight on Monday.
Ryan Fox had to maneuver the Claret Jug into an overhead bin on a flight after his victory at the British Open
Fox is one of the many pro golfers who’ve done pretty well for themselves without coming close to becoming a household name. He’d made close to $10 million in PGA Tour events before winning The Open, and had also racked up around $17 million in 205 tournaments on the DP World Tour.
It is safe to assume he did not expect to leave Royal Birkdale as a major champion, as it’s hard to imagine anyone who anticipated celebrating that kind of victory would book a flight that was slated to take off from Manchester Airport at 6:55 A.M. on the Monday after it wrapped up.
However, Fox declined to rearrange his travel plans, as he got up bright and early to catch the plane that was set to ferry him to Heathrow International Airport, where he was (presumably) planning to catch another one to Minnesota for this week’s 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities.
He also found himself dealing with some baggage he didn’t have when he arrived in England, as the case containing the Claret Jug was the carry-on that he brought onto the plane before angling it into the overhead bin that was adjacent to the seat where Cameron Young (who he defeated by a single stroke) was sitting.
Great scene and story from @matthahnphoto this morning in England.
I guess Foxy did make that 7 am flight he said might be iffy after celebrating. pic.twitter.com/VNrJ7rENoy
— Brendan Porath (@BrendanPorath) July 20, 2026
A number of fans praised Fox for being a man of the people for sitting in coach (or, more accurately, premium economy).
However, it’s worth noting the plane that ferried him from Manchester to London (a journey that takes a little over an hour) was an Airbus 320neo operated by British Airways, which does not offer a configuration that boasts business or first class on those aircraft.
However, I wouldn’t be shocked to learn he opted to upgrade for the subsequent long haul.