On day two of the 1982 World Series of Poker Main Event, Jack ‘Treetop’ Straus found himself in a tricky situation. Having got into a huge pot, the 6’7″ Texan’s luck had run out and the final card turn left him with two options. Option one was to check and inevitably fold since his opponent was sure to have the better hand; option two was to bluff and hope that his false show of strength would scare the other player off.
Straus chose option two, and reaching down, shoved his entire stack into the centre of the table but was quickly called. Believing his tournament was over, he shook hands all round and stood to leave before discovering that a single $500 chip was hidden beneath a napkin. Since he hadn’t voiced the words ‘all in’, WSOP officials ruled that the chip was still his, and he sat back down to continue.
From there, a mixture of fortune and extreme aggression saw him gradually increase his stack and incredibly, 24 hours later, he’d assumed chip-leader position and made it to the final table. He continued to play so aggressively that the seat to his right became known as the ‘electric chair’ because, one-by-one, those sitting in it were eliminated by Straus until only he and Dewey Tomko remained.
10 minutes later, with a gigantic chip advantage, Straus called Tomko’s ‘all-in’ raise and, with A-10, caught a 10 on the river to complete the greatest comeback story in poker history.
Whether it was Straus himself or somebody else who said it is up for debate, but the phrase, “All you need is a chip and a chair to have a chance” was coined, and, with poker’s explosion in popularity since, it’s been repeated everywhere from brightly-lit Las Vegas casinos to dimly-lit back-alley dens and living rooms all over the world.
All you need is a chip and a chair.
And how does this relate to golf?
Well, all you need in professional tournaments is to make the cut. That’s your chip and chair. From there, if you’re good enough, aggressive enough, and fortunate enough, you have a chance. And that’s exactly what Ryan Fox proved at Royal Birkdale.
The Kiwi was tied for 85th after the opening round, and tied for 52nd at the halfway mark – both now record low positions for a player who’s gone on to win a major championship.
While his eight-stroke 36-hole deficit is some five shy of that which George Duncan overcame in the 1920 Open Championship at Royal Cinque Ports, but the Scot was just outside the top 10 at halftime.
Fox’s 62 on Saturday was the low round of the day by three, and tied the low-score for any round at a major championship. Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns may have shot the same score the day prior, but the fact that it was matched by another with a 64 also recorded suggests that Fox’s was the better of the three. And it sent him hurtling up the leaderboard and into Sunday’s final group. To back it up by shooting a 68 in the pressure cauldron of a late major championship Sunday was almost as impressive.
It’s not the first time somebody’s come from close to the cutline to win a big tournament, of course. Rory McIlroy’s first PGA Tour win came having made an eagle on the seventh hole – his 16th – in round two which saw him make the cut on the number and then go 66-62 over the final 36 holes at the 2010 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.
Joe Highsmith did the same at the Cognizant Classic in 2025, as did Brandt Snedeker at the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open, but there’s a big difference between doing it in a PGA or DP World Tour event, and doing it in a major, so though Fox had a shot to spare over the cut mark, it’s a much more significant achievement.
And he’s shown that making the cut at a major is all you need if you’ve got the belief, the skills, and the mental fortitude to press the pedal down and keep the weight on it.
A weekend tee time – it’s golf’s ‘chip and a chair’ equivalent.
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