‘I was shaking’: Ryan Fox tells us what winning The Open actually felt like

Ryan Fox caught up with The Morning Rumble for an exclusive chat after becoming the fourth New Zealander to win a golf major, admitting the biggest moment of his career still hasn't properly sunk in.

PODCAST: Listen to The Morning Rumble's full chat with Foxy here.

The 39-year-old Aucklander made history at Royal Birkdale, sinking a 12-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win The Open Championship by a shot and lift the Claret Jug. It completed one of the greatest comebacks in major history, with Foxy climbing from a tie for 52nd after making the cut, thanks in part to a third-round 62 that matched the lowest round ever shot at a men's major.

But if you thought he'd spent the flight home catching up on sleep, think again.

"I haven't had any sleep. I've had about two hours sleep on the plane... My brain was just spinning, going, 'holy shit, I just won a major.' What does all of this entail? And I couldn't work out what all of it entails, to be honest."

That wasn't helped by celebrations stretching until 3.30am before a 4.15am airport pickup.

"I'd resigned myself to the fact pretty early that I was just going to suck it up and pull an all-nighter."

Despite the pressure of playing in the final group on Sunday, Fox said everything became surprisingly simple once he was out there.

"Honestly I don't really know at that point. It's just see ball, hit ball and hope you don't mess it up."

Standing over the winning putt, though, was a different beast.

"I've hit putts pretending, in practice, to hole one to win a major. It's nothing like the real thing. I could barely feel my hands. I was shaking so bad... the only thing in my head was to have good speed."

One of the first people he called afterwards was his family. The timing couldn't have been more perfect after his kids had made one simple request the night before.

"My kids kind of said, 'Dad, can you bring us home a trophy?'... I kind of said to them jokingly, 'Well, I'm bringing home a trophy for you now.' They were really excited to find out that I actually get two with the replica and the real one for a year. So they think they get one each."

Even after making history alongside Sir Bob Charles, Dame Lydia Ko and Michael Campbell as New Zealand major winners, Fox admits the reality still feels surreal.

"It's something that you dream of... I wouldn't ever have thought that a major championship was necessarily something that was going to become a reality. But I'm going to have to get used to that pretty soon."

Not a bad thing to be getting used to.

Congrats again Foxy, we’re absolutely stoked for you.