Caledon, Ontario – New Zealand’s Ryan Fox won his second PGA Tour in five weeks. Another memorable playoff shot, this time 3-7 feet in Sunday’s fourth extra hole, defeating the Sam Burns at the RBC Canadian Open.
Fox won the Myrtle Beach Classic last month, with Birdie chipping in to win the three-man playoffs. This took a little longer at TPC Toronto in Osprey Valley.
It may be even more memorable that it turned out to be a winning shot. Fox gently landed just to the left of the pin and smoked three trees, slurping down seven feet away. Burns pulled three 55 feet left of the pin on the right front. He ran the Eagle Putt 8 feet and missed it.
Fox missed Eagle’s attempt before tapping for birdie.
“To be honest, Sam and I had a bit of a pillow fight for the three holes,” Fox said. “But that shot hit 18. That 3wood was probably the best shot I’ve ever hit. It would have been good to make a putt.
Fox was able to hole up birdie putts from within par 5 18 feet with a regulation of 18 under 66 and join Burns at 18 under 262.
They played the 18th four more – the PGA Tour moved the pin position from left to front right after two extra holes – and there was nothing convincing about the extra holes.
Considered one of the best putters on the PGA Tour, Burns had a birdie putt of just over five feet in the first playoffs of the victory. He left it to the right. The next time I turned 18, Fox went to Green and pushed three trees. The rough collar stopped it from entering the water. He pitched to 12 feet and had that birdie putt for the victory, but he shortened his legs.
Certainly a pillow fight.
This was his third time playing overtime on the 18th, Burns had a short, lob wedge on the right, spinning from the green, almost into the water. Fox hit the right 40 feet away. They both made pars.
Fox delivered goods in the final hole and now has two wins in just a month. The victory marked the 38-year-old Fox from 75th to 32nd in the world, opening him next week to be among the top 60 in the world rankings.
Kevin Yu birded the final hole for 66 to finish alone in third place, one out of the playoffs. He just missed the top 60 to go to Oakmont next week. However, Yu joined Cameron Young and Matt McCarty, winning the top three spots at the British Open next month for players who are not yet eligible.
Fox was already at the British Open since his victory at the 2023 BMW PGA Championship, the flagship event on the European Tour. Fox has now won eight wins worldwide. He has won two PGA Tours, four European Tours, and two Australian PGA Tours.
Burns was hoping to finish more than two years without a victory. His final title came in the final year of the 2023 World Golf Championship Match Play.
Young shot 65 to fourth place. When Young made an incredible par on the 17th, he moved from the tree on the right to the broken one to the left, gouges it to 15 feet to create a putt.
However, while he needed a birdie in the par-5 closing hole to catch Burns, the leader of the clubhouse at the time, Young washed three trees into green in the wind, washing the green into the trees, effectively leaving him no shot. It took two to ride the green and he completed two shots for Bogey.
“I couldn’t hit two good shots on the last hole. I couldn’t hit three woods that much, I was blowing straight into the wind. And I decided to bounce all the way up to Backwoods.” “I thought I had about 12 footers to win the tournament, and that ended up in a place where I struggled to make pars.