Refreshed Ryan Fox back from eight week break

Ryan Fox during his press conference today – image PGA of Australia

New Zealander Ryan Fox returns from an eight-week break from tournament golf, excited about being back and ready to take on much stronger fields than he has faced in previous years in Australian events, in the knowledge that he is now the leading world-ranked Australasian in this week’s Australian PGA Championship.

Fox’s two wins on the PGA Tour in his second season as a cardholder there ensured he not only comfortably retained his status on the PGA Tour, he is now in a category which allows him to play not only all the lucrative signature events on the PGA Tour but all of the game’s majors, providing an ease of mind for the now 38 year old and access to untold riches.

As someone who likes to travel with his family, Fox’s success and the security of tenure that he has now earned, has allowed him the luxury of a permanent place of residence for he and his family including his wife and two daughters in Jupiter in Florida, and such security should ensure he builds on his already impressive start in the USA.

Fox will play this week’s Australian PGA Championship and next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, and no doubt take a break ahead of playing the PGA Tour season’s opening event in Hawaii, but, first, he will tackle a field which this week includes several of Europe’s best, along with Australia’s leading players other than Jason Day.

Fox has won three events on Australian soil, although none since his breakthrough European Tour title in 2019 when winning the Super 6’s event in Perth but, given his significant standing in Australasian and World golf, that could well change this week.

So, after his lengthy break, how is he feeling about his game?

“Very refreshed. It was a really busy PGA TOUR season, and last year I had some forced time off at the end of the year with a bit of a hip injury, and this year was kind of the opposite.

“It was like, well, I’ve got a chance to just take a break, go home, be dad, be normal, and I’m buzzing to be back into it this week. It probably felt like it was a couple of weeks too much.

“I was watching a couple of events on TV going, ‘I’d quite like to be playing that one’, which obviously a couple of months earlier, I didn’t want to see a golf club, but I’m looking forward to this week.”

When asked about the motivation for returning to Australia to play, he responded.

“I’ve always really enjoyed coming back to Aussie and playing. Obviously, this is the first Tour I played when I turned pro, and I would’ve loved to come back last year, but injury kept me out of coming back, and this year it fitted in perfectly.

“I’ve had a chance to have a really, really nice break, but looking at it going forward, I don’t want to take three months off golf and try to go back into early next year and find it again. And obviously, we’re playing two great golf courses the next two weeks, great fields, and I really wanted to be a part of it basically. It was a no-brainer for me.”

With two victories on the PGA Tour this season and the benefits that have brought, what are his goals moving forward?

“Obviously, I’d love to build on it. It’s hard to beat a year I had this year. Other than maybe making the Tour Championship, I ticked every box that I wanted to tick.

I think this year the big one is to be on Geoff’s (Ogilvy’s Presidents Cup) team in September for next year. So that’s something I feel like I’ve missed out on the last couple of years and I’m in a good place.

“I’m in all the big events for next year, so I really want to be a part of that team, and I’d love to make the Tour Championship; that’s another goal to take off. I’m in all the big events next year so contending in one of those would be great. It’s a nice place to be. I know my golf game is good enough to compete with the best players in the world, and I give myself a few more chances with that next year.”

So, with the benefit of his first season behind him in 2024, how has he benefited from playing the PGA Tour for a second season?

“Yeah, this year has been a lot easier than last year. I think we did it the hard way last year. We didn’t really know where we wanted to base ourselves. So we spent a bit of last year trying to figure out where we’d like to go and ended up in Jupiter where most of the TOUR is anyway, but we travelled for I think it was like 20 weeks in a row just dragging kids through airports, hotels and golf courses and that got pretty tiring pretty quickly and this year we made sure we didn’t do that again. We had a base in Jupiter, rented a house there for seven months this year and actually worked really well, knowing the events too.

“So we bought a place in Jupiter, and you’re going to be out there at least for the next three years, which is cool and kind of daunting at the same time. But for the most part, the family enjoyed it last year, that 28 degrees in Florida in the middle of winter, with the kids being able to swim in the pool, they tended to quite enjoy that, and they liked the travelling around for the most part.

“It’s going to get a little different for us this year. Our oldest is going to be school age, so we’ve got a little bit of logistics to work out there, where she’s going to go to school, and how that’s all going to work with travel and stuff like that. But we know we’re going to be based predominantly in the States over the next few years and for the most part, we enjoyed it this year and are looking forward to doing it again next year.”

Given the standing Fox now has in the game, he deserves consideration as a potential contender over the next two weeks. It may be that the rust developed over his eight week break takes a while to wear off, but there is little doubt he is a far more credentialed player than he has been previously when on Australian soil, and the likeable Aucklander will garner more than his share of support from both New Zealanders and Australians.