Four NZ golfers to compete in The Open for first time in 15 years

By Christopher Reive

As the eyes of the golfing world fall on The Open Championship this week, a quartet of Kiwi golfers will take their place in the spotlight.

In this week’s tournament at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland, the final men’s major of the season this week, Ryan Fox, Daniel Hillier, Kazuma Kobori and Michael Hendry will all tee it up in the 158-strong field.

It will be the first time in 15 years that four Kiwis have competed in The Open, after Michael Campbell, David Smail, Josh Geary and Mark Brown at Turnberry in 2009.

Speaking to the Herald, Fox said it was a cool moment for the sport in New Zealand.

“It’s a couple of guys who are pretty young and starting their career in Dan and especially Kazuma, and Mike and I kind of the elder statesmen,” Fox said.

“It’s pretty cool to see Mike back with everything he went through last year and it was great of [tournament organisers] the R&A to extend an invitation to him this year after obviously missing last year with his leukaemia battle.”

The quartet marked the occasion by playing a practice round together as they looked to get a feel for what Fox expected to be a testing links course.

This will be the second major in a row that Fox and Kobori have both been in the field, with the latter also qualifying to play in the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club this year.

For Fox, the opportunity to link up with fellow Kiwis on tour was one he enjoyed having and he said, if the younger guys came asking, he would always be willing to offer advice.

“I catch up with Dan every week [I’m in Europe]; have dinner with him at least once and try to play some holes with him. It’s not mentoring or anything, he’s just a good dude and I enjoy spending time with him.

“Kazuma reached out at the PGA Championship and wanted to play a practice round, which was cool, and Mike was actually the one to set up the practice round here.

“I’m happy to help the guys out if they want any advice, but everyone’s their own person and I feel like professional golf is figuring out what works for you and just do that. I’m different to all of the other guys, but if I can provide a little bit of insight into anything I’m more than happy to help.”

Fox headed into The Open after finishing in a tie for 57th at the Genesis Scottish Open last week at Scotland’s Renaissance Club. Hillier finished one shot ahead in a tie for 46th.

It was a tough week on the links for Fox, who made a strong start to the tournament to sit six-under through his first two rounds but wasn’t able to build on that start as he played even golf through his third and fourth rounds.

However, there were positives to take away from the week as his short game was largely on point, and if he was able to maintain that while driving the ball better, he would likely see his run of solid form in majors continue.

Royal Troon was a course that he admitted he wasn’t familiar with, but one he expected to serve up some interesting leaderboards as rounds progressed.

“Other than the Postage Stamp, I don’t know much about Troon itself,” Fox said.

“The Postage Stamp is the little par-three eighth, so I’m looking forward to seeing that, but by all accounts, it’s a very, very good golf course. The front nine is very scoreable then apparently on the back nine it bares its teeth a little bit.

“It could be one of those weeks where you see guys go out pretty quickly, then come back to the field on that back nine in some of those stronger holes.

“The goal would be to be in contention come Sunday afternoon. I’ve been pretty good at making major cuts, just not quite putting it all together for a week, so hopefully this is the week I can do it.”

Kiwi golfers’ tee times for the opening rounds of The Open
Ryan Fox: Thursday 11.20pm and Friday 6.08pm playing alongside Corey Conners (Canada) and Jorge Campillo (Spain)

Daniel Hillier: Thursday 6.08pm and Friday 11.09pm playing alongside Young-Han Song (Korea) and Ryosuke Kinoshita (Japan)

Michael Hendry: Thursday 5.57pm and Friday 10.58pm playing alongside Jesper Svensson (Sweden) and Vincent Norman (Sweden)

Kazuma Kobori: Friday 3.05am and Friday 9.53pm playing alongside Jaime Montojo (Spain) and Liam Nolan (Ireland)

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission