SOUTHPORT, England -- Ryan Fox has become the new face of playing quickly in a sport that could use a good example.
Perhaps the best illustration came during the most important moment of his golf life. He had a 12-foot birdie putt to win the Open Championship for his first major, pressure as great as can be found in golf. The 39-year-old Fox took all of 22 seconds to send it on its way.
He chose his words carefully Sunday evening to make sure he didn't offend.
"I need to make sure this comes across right," Fox said. "It's not that difficult to pick a shot and pick a club. I get in there, and it all happens quick. It's always going to be between one or two clubs into a green, and I just see the shot quickly, pick a shot quickly, and the less time I have to think about it, the less bad stuff can creep in there."
It was all good Sunday -- the perfect drive, the perfect 9-iron, the perfect putt.
"My routine is quick," Fox told "The Pat McAfee Show" on Tuesday. "Everything in my head works fast -- I see the shot fast, I make the decision fast, my routine is fast. I'm glad I kept that same thing with a chance to win a major. It would have been really easy to get out of that routine. That's what I've done my whole career.
"The reason I probably started [playing fast] when I first started playing golf when I was a kid with my dad ... I remember the first times I'd go to a golf course, my dad's playing corporate days, charity days, stuff like that; he's got his 18-year-old tagging along and wanting to play. I'm playing with the big boys at the time. I just want to get out of their way; I don't want to annoy anyone [and] I'm just real chuffed to be there. I'm like, 'Hey, let me play. I'll play real quick. I won't annoy any of you.' And that's just kind of stayed the same way the whole way through [my career]."
Fox joins a short list of players renowned for fast play during the big-money era -- Joe Ogilvie and Bill Haas, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, Lucas Glover and Matt Jones.
"I've done 250 tournaments with him, and it's never changed," said Dean Smith, who is Fox's caddie. "People see it as, like, he's flying around there, and he is, in a way, but it takes any doubt out."
Fox was asked if anyone was quicker than he is, and he mentioned Renato Paratore of Italy.
"He used to hit while his name was getting announced on the first tee," Fox said.
He also shared a story involving Scottie Scheffler, who did not make the list. Fox said they played in a threesome during the WM Phoenix Open.
"I can't work out if this was a burn or a compliment," he said. "We walk off the ninth tee and he goes: 'Foxy, it doesn't even feel like you're in the group. It just feels like we're playing in a two-ball, you hit so fast.'
"It's just always how I've played," Fox said. "I'm kind of glad I kept that routine down the stretch."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.