Kiwi Ryan Fox has made headlines in round one of The Open Championship, breaking a record that has stood for the entire 148 years of the tournament’s history.

Fox made six birdies in his closing seven holes on day one of play at Royal Portrush and is the first person to shoot 29 on the back-9 of The Open Championship.

Carding a first-round score of 3-under 68, Fox sits is in a tie for third at the completion of the third round.

“Yeah, that’s pretty cool. I didn’t realise that [shooting 29] while it was going on,” said Fox.

“I just got out of my own way and hit some decent shots, and it was nice to see some putts go in.

“I got a little bit of luck, my shot on the 18^th bounced off a bank to 10 feet and I had a putt on the 17^th that should’ve missed but it jumped in the left edge.

“You need that to shoot a good score and it was certainly nice to do that after a pretty frustrating opening 9.”

The record-breaking closing nine was timely after Fox was three-over after his opening 11 holes of the tournament.

“I don’t think it’ll click for a while to be honest. At the moment I’m just happy to have a decent opening round.

“It’s been a while since I’ve played well in the first round of an event and I didn’t get off to the best of starts again.

“To go out and actually have some fun and play a closing 9 holes like that at such a prestigious event is pretty cool and to have a little piece of history is something I’ll be able to hang onto for a little while.”

While Fox was firing, other crowd favourites were faltering with Rory McIlroy carding 8-over 79 around his home course and Tiger Woods shooting a seven-over round of 78.

Fox tees off for his second round at 4:30 pm AEST.