New Delhi, July 18 -- SOUTHPORT - The 55-foot birdie at the par-four sixth announced it. Ryan Fox had been unremarkable across two rounds at the 154th Open Championship, positioned well outside the top 50 when Saturday's third round began, and there was nothing about his early holes to suggest the afternoon would end with history written beside his name. Then the putt dropped, and it kept dropping, and by the time Fox reached the 18th tee he had made nine birdies on the day with only a single bogey to interrupt the sequence.

He finished with an eight-under 62 at Royal Birkdale, tying the lowest score in men's major championship history. He is the seventh player to shoot that number in a major, the third to do so in this week alone, and t...