Tied for the lead entering the final round just three weeks after his breakthrough win at the Myrtle Beach Classic, Fox was stuck in neutral for much of Sunday at TPC Toronto.

One-under through 13 holes and bogey free, the 38-year-old threatened to become victim to a Sam Burns buzzsaw, the American matching the low round of the week – 8-under 62 – to post 18-under.

A three-time winner on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, Fox converted from 21 feet at the par-3 14th and then drew to within one of Burns with a brilliant wedge into three feet at the par-4 15th.

He squandered a birdie chance from just outside eight feet at the par-4 17th but found enough of the left edge of the hole at the par-5 18th to force a playoff with Burns.

Both made pars the first two trips back down 18 before greens staff change the hole location for the third playoff hole, an adjustment on-course commentator Wayne Riley had never seen his decorated playing and television careers.

After another halved hole, Fox stepped up and hit 3-wood from 269 yards at the fourth playoff hole to just seven feet.

While he would miss his eagle try, his proximity to the hole elicited a three-putt from Burns, tapping in for birdie as New Zealand’s All Whites soccer team raucously cheered on from an adjacent marquee.

“It’s the best shot I’ve ever hit in my life. There’s nothing close to that,” said Fox.

“We had a couple scrappy holes there, and then to hit the shot I hit on 18 on the fourth playoff, it was pretty surreal.

“Sam probably let me off the hook three-putting there, but I felt like I put pressure on him with that shot.

“It was pretty cool to have a nice little tap-in there and kind of soak it all in.”

Already through to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the All Whites defeated African champions Ivory Coast 1-0 in Toronto on Saturday, Fox thrilled to have his countrymen in the crowd so far from home.

“To have the Kiwi support out there, it was great. They were there all day,” said Fox, who has rocketed from 119th to 32nd in the Official World Golf Ranking in the past four weeks.

“We seem to have a lot of weeks where random Kiwis pop up, and to have the All Whites say, ‘Hey, is there any chance we can come out and watch on Sunday?’ was really cool.

“To be able to meet them all there at the end and get a photo with them was pretty special.”

As our ‘adopted Aussie’ claimed victory, there were a host of notable performances from Australians around the world.

Robyn Choi continues to make good use of limited playing opportunities on the LPGA Tour with a tie for 11th at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Marc Leishman followed up from qualifying for the US Open with a tie for 10th at LIV Golf Virginia and Maddison Hinson-Tolchard earned her best result on the Ladies European Tour with a tie for eighth at the Tenerife Ladies Open in Spain.

Photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Results

PGA TOUR
RBC Canadian Open
TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, North Course, Ontario
1          Ryan Fox (NZ)               66-66-64-66—262       $US1.764m
Won on fourth hole of sudden-death playoff
MC       Harrison Endycott        67-71—138
MC       Karl Vilips                     73-69—142
MC       Aaron Baddeley           70-72—142

LPGA Tour
ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer
Seaview Golf Club, Galloway, New Jersey
1          Jennifer Kupcho           68-64-66—198 $US262,500
T11      Robyn Choi                  68-66-70—204 $30,575
T26      Karis Davidson             69-68-70—207 $15,906
T54      Sarah Kemp                 71-69-71—211 $5,481
MC       Sarah Jane Smith         74-69—143
MC       Fiona Xu (NZ)               73-72—145
MC       Su Oh                          73-75—148

LIV Golf
LIV Golf Virginia presented by MAADEN
Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Gainesville, Virginia
1          Joaquín Niemann         67-68-63—198 $US4m
T10      Marc Leishman            67-71-66—204 $361,000        
T19      Ben Campbell (NZ)       72-73-62—207 $235,000
T23      Cameron Smith            70-70-68—208 $193,333
43        Danny Lee (NZ)            69-72-73—214 $128,000
46        Lucas Herbert               75-73-68—216 $125,000
T50      Matt Jones                   75-75-70—220 $56,667          

PGA TOUR Champions
American Family Insurance Championship
TPC Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
1          T. Bjørn/D. Clarke         59-58-64—181 $US300,000
6          B. Langer/S. Alker (NZ) 66-57-63—186 $75,000
T10      C. Percy/D. Bransdon   63-59-67—189 $43,500
T10      S. Appleby/M. Wright  63-63-63—189 $43,500
T12      S. Allan/G. Chalmers     65-61-64—190 $36,000
T15      T. Jaidee/B. Jones         62-64-65—191 $26,375
T15      M. Hensby/R. Green     61-62-68—191 $26,375
T15      R. Pampling/J. Senden  64-62-65—191 $26,375

DP World Tour
KLM Open
The International, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1          Connor Syme               65-72-66-70—273       €408,798.36
T26      Jason Scrivener            68-75-69-73—285       €19,701.33
T26      Daniel Hillier (NZ)         70-72-72-71—285       €19,701.33
MC       Kazuma Kobori (NZ)     76-74—150
MC       David Micheluzzi          76-76—152
MC       Daniel Gale                  83-75—158
WD      Danny List                    77

Ladies European Tour
Tenerife Women’s Open
Abama Golf, Tenerife, Spain
1          Sara Kouskova             71-68-69-71—279       €75,000
T8        Maddison Hinson-Tolchard      72-71-72-68—283       €11,250
T8        Amelia Garvey (NZ)      73-69-68-73—283       €11,250
T30      Momoka Kobori (NZ)   73-74-73-70—290       €4,494.44
T49      Wenyung Keh (NZ)       72-73-70-78—293       €2,450
MC       Kirsten Rudgeley          76-73—149
MC       Kelsey Bennett             76-77—153

Japan Golf Tour
BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup
Shishido Hills Country Club West Course
1          Taiga Semikawa           68-69-69-66—272       ¥30m
Won on first hole of sudden-death playoff
T24      Brad Kennedy              69-71-70-72—282       ¥1.35m
T62      Michael Hendry (NZ)    72-72-74-74—292       ¥336,000

Epson Tour
FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship
Battle Creek Country Club, Battle Creek, Michigan
1          Samantha Wagner       68-70-65—203 $US33,750
T25      Jennifer Elliott              70-72-70—212 $2,034
MC       Soo Jin Lee                   70-79—149
MC       Jess Whitting               79-73—152

HotelPlanner Tour
Swiss Challenge
Golf Sempach, Lucerne, Switzerland
1          Félix Mory                    67-68-68-69—272       €48,000
Won in sudden-death playoff
T36      Sam Jones (NZ)            67-73-70-73—283       €1,890
MC       Hayden Hopewell        71-75—146

LET Access Series
Montauban Ladies Open
Golf de Montauban, France
1          Reina Fujikawa             70-68-71—209 €7,200
Won in sudden-death playoff
T4        Belinda Ji                      69-72-70—211 €1,524.38
T14      Abbie Teasdale             74-66-73—213 €774.90
T25      Justice Bosio                71-74-70—215 €598.50
T35      Stephanie Bunque        74-71-72—217 €475.50
T43      Kristalle Blum               71-69-79—219 €382.50
T58      Amy Walsh                   74-72-86—232 €135

Korn Ferry Tour
BMW Charity Pro-Am
Thornblade Club and Carolina Country Club
1          Austin Smotherman     65-62-66-67—260       $US180,000
MC       Harry Hillier (NZ)          72-72—144
MC       Rhein Gibson               77-77—154

Korean PGA Tour
Baeksong Holdings-Asiad CC Busan Open
Asiad Country Club, Busam, South Korea
1          Hongtaek Kim              70-69-66-68—273
T45      Sungjin Yeo (NZ)          72-71-73-73—289
MC       Changgi Lee (NZ)         76-73—149
MC       Wonjoon Lee                74-75—149
MC       Junseok Lee                  77-74—151

Sunshine Tour
The Mopani Zambia Open
Nkana Golf Club, Kitwe, Zambia
1          Samuel Simpson          72-65-71-69—277
T53      Austin Bautista             72-72-73-76—293