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Ryan Fox is a professional golfer from New Zealand who had never previously won one of the sport's four "major" championships, the biggest and most prestigious tournaments in golf. The Open Championship, held annually in Britain, is one of these four majors and is widely regarded as the oldest and most historic. It was being played at Royal Birkdale, a well-known golf course in England that has hosted the event many times before.

American golfers have traditionally dominated these major championships for years, so a season in which they have struggled to win represents a shift from the usual pattern. Cameron Young and Sam Burns, the two players Fox beat, are both American professionals who had been competing to break that recent trend. Their close contest with Fox made his win a significant moment, both for his own career and for the wider conversation about which countries are producing the sport's leading players.

Major championships are scored by counting strokes across four rounds, with the lowest total winning; scores are often expressed "under par", meaning fewer strokes than the target set for the course. Winning any major is considered a career-defining achievement for a professional golfer, and a first major win in particular marks a significant step up in status within the sport.