Kiwi golfing champions Sir Bob Charles, Dame Lydia Ko, Michael Campbell and Ryan Fox.
On the back of Ryan Fox’s maiden PGA Tour win, and becoming the ninth Kiwi to do so, Cameron McMillan ranks New Zealand’s best golfing victories. Does Fox’s latest victory make the list?
10 Ryan Fox wins BMW Championship, 2023
Fox’s win at Myrtle Beach wasn’t in the strongest field, so doesn’t make this list. But his win at Wentworth two years ago is certainly up there as one of our nation’s best golfing accomplishments. Fox beat a field including Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy... pretty much the entire European Ryder Cup team, which the US team couldn’t do two weeks later at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club. Fox had six birdies on the back nine to claim a one-shot victory over English duo Tyrell Hatton and Aaron Rai.
9 Dame Lydia Ko wins second CME Tour Championship, 2022
Ko claimed the richest prize in women’s golf at US$2 million with her second CME Tour Championship, a wire-to-wire victory that also allowed her to win LPGA player of the year.
Ko outlasted Leona Maguire of Ireland in the final round, seizing control with a 2.1m birdie putt on the 16th hole and closing with two-under 70 for a two-shot victory. Ko clinched the points-based award for LPGA player of the year for the second time, and also won the Vare Trophy for the second straight year for having the lowest scoring average.
8 Dame Lydia Ko wins ANA Inspiration, 2016
Ko’s second major, now called the Chevron Championship, was a lot more dramatic than her first. Ko lay up on the par five 18th at the Mission Hills Country Club, then speared a wedge inside three feet and holed the putt. Meanwhile, her closest rival, Ariya Jutanugarn, hooked her tee shot into the water guarding the left side of the fairway to finish with her third straight bogey to throw away a two-shot lead.
Ko shot 70, 68, 69, 69 around the Rancho Mirage course before, in the winner’s tradition, making the leap into Poppie’s Pond, which guarded the final hole.
7 New Zealand wins the Eisenhower Trophy, 1992
Michael Campbell, Phil Tataurangi, Stephen Scahill and Grant Moorhead put New Zealand golf back on the map with victory in the team amateur event by a whopping seven shots over a USA team that featured future British Open winners David Duval and Justin Leonard. Tataurangi won the individual honours over Campbell as the Kiwis took the top two spots.
6 Craig Perks wins The Players Championship, 2002
It might just be the best closing three-hole finish in golf history. Craig Perks had just one putt, an 8.5m birdie, to go with chip-ins at the 16th and 18th to claim a remarkable victory at the event dubbed the unofficial fifth major.
He was ranked 203 in the world and had never won on the PGA Tour, but the man from Manawatū stunned the golfing world at TPC Sawgrass to win the Players Championship. Two shots down with three to play, he went eagle-birdie to hold a two-stroke lead at the 72nd hole over Stephen Ames.
Perks looked in trouble, however; after three swings he wasn’t on the green at the par-four last. But he avoided any nervous putts by chipping in for par to close out the victory.
5 Dame Lydia Ko wins British Open, 2024
An eight-year wait, but Ko eventually claimed her third career major, doing so at St Andrews, the home of golf.
As the wind continued to blow strong and even some Scottish rain fell, there was a four-way tie for the lead at one point before Ko surged home with a three-under-par 69 to finish two shots clear of the pack.
Ko sat in a three-way tie for the lead walking up the 18th and then birdied the final hole to move to seven-under. She then had to wait 34 minutes. Behind her were the world No 1 Nelly Korda and defending Women’s Open champion Lilia Vu.
Vu needed a birdie on the last to force a playoff and was in prime position after a monster tee shot. But her chip went over the pin and left a long putt that she couldn’t make.
4 Dame Lydia Ko wins Evian Championship, 2015
Ko had already checked off the youngest person ever to win an LPGA Tour event and the youngest player to be ranked No 1. She added the youngest woman to win a major championship in stunning fashion by recording the lowest final round in a women’s golf major.
The world No 2 stormed to victory at Évian-les-Bains with a brilliant final round of 63, and at 18 years, four months and 20 days became the youngest woman to win a major.
3 Michael Campbell wins the US Open, 2005
For 42 years, Sir Bob Charles was the only New Zealander to win a golf major. Campbell looked to join him in 1995, holding a two-shot lead into the final round of the Open Championship at St Andrews, only to finish third.
Ten years later, at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, Campbell had another shot at a major and held off a charging Tiger Woods to lift the US Open Trophy.
The defining moment was a lengthy birdie putt at the 17th. Campbell had bogeyed the previous hole and Woods had just birdied the last to make it a two-shot lead. Campbell could have taken the easier approach and tried to two-putt for par – instead, he drained the birdie to take a three-shot buffer to the last. A bogey was enough for his maiden major.
2 Dame Lydia Ko wins Olympic gold, 2024
Saving the gold for last, Dame Lydia Ko completed the Olympic set in style at the Paris Games. Leading by one on the tricky par-five 18th hole, she very nearly holed out with her third from 70m out, just landing shy of the hole leaving a 1.5m shot for birdie and gold. She sank the putt and the tears began to flow.
Ko opened the day in a tie for the lead and certainly wasn’t flawless – a double-bogey on the 13th was particularly shaky – but managed to pair enough blemishes with class to claim the one shade of medal missing on her mantlepiece; after silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo. No other golfer of any gender has won more than one Olympic medal.
1 Sir Bob Charles wins the Open Championship, 1963
The first New Zealander to win a golf major, Charles also became the first left-handed player to lift the Claret Jug with victory at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.
After winning his first PGA Tour event in April at the Houston Classic, Charles held the Open Championship lead heading into the final round before finishing tied with American Phil Rodgers. A 36-hole playoff was needed on the Monday for Charles to claim his maiden major.
It would be the last ever 36-hole playoff, with the Kiwi eventually winning by eight shots. You could make a case that Ko’s Olympic gold was on a bigger stage, but Charles beat the likes of golfing legends Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Peter Thomson, with Nicklaus missing out on the playoff with a bogey at the 72nd hole.
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Scheffler finished strongly in North Carolina to claim his third major title.