The hugely popular Aucklander continued his family's great sporting heritage with his Open victory adding to the laurels earned by his father Grant Fox, the All Blacks' Rugby World Cup-winning great, and his maternal grandfather Merv Wallace, who captained and coached the NZ cricket team.
"We've got a great history in our family, and the other great thing is I had no pressure on me to follow in any of their footsteps," smiled Fox after his birdie-putt triumph on the last green at Royal Birkdale on Sunday.
"I was lucky enough to carve my own path there and had support from both my grandfather early on and obviously mum and dad through the whole thing.
"I don't know if this tops their achievements, but it's certainly right up there. I guess there's no pressure on my kids going forward now!" laughed the dad about his two daughters.
Fox was certainly sure his victory would be big news for New Zealand to wake up to, with another golfing major winner to celebrate.
"I know it's going to ruin a lot of guys' Monday mornings, but I think we punch above our weight a little bit in New Zealand anyway," he smiled.
"We've got four major champions from New Zealand now: Michael Campbell, Lydia Ko, a multi-major champion, and Sir Bob (Charles, the only previous Open winner back at Lytham in 1963), so to be able to join them is amazing.
"To have my own little piece of history, too, I don't know if it's something I've dreamed of, something I ever thought was possible, but we're here now!
"Dame Lydia Ko has won, what, three majors, and she's not even 30 yet! It's pretty crazy. I think this will be huge for New Zealand golf.
"Recreationally, the game has been booming pretty much since COVID, and that momentum has kept going. Hopefully this adds a little bit to that."
A sporting all-rounder, Fox didn't play golf, competitively, until he was 18 nor turn pro until he was 25, but he quickly made up for his late start by impressing on the Australasian tour
"It was the first tour I played on, where I learned professional golf, the travel and grind that's involved, it's a really underrated tour," he reflected.
"Obviously, the big events, the Aussie Open especially, are very well regarded around the world, but the fields in the smaller events, I always thought were really, really strong.
"You felt like you had to play really well to contend at an Aussie Tour event back in the day, so when I first got over to Europe, I kind of felt ready to compete with those guys purely from having won a couple of times on the Aussie Tour.
"It's a great pathway into other tours now, a great tour and I would recommend anyone from the southern hemisphere to give it a crack if they want to do it. It's a great place to learn the game."
