Ryan Fox eyes opportunity as highest-ranked golfer in PGA Tour event

By Christopher Reive

Opportunity awaits Ryan Fox.

The PGA Tour season, so far, hasn’t gone to plan for the Kiwi. While he has a top-five finish to his name, he has also missed the cut in six of the 11 events he has played in. Last week’s tournament in Texas was the latest in that group, a tournament where low scores across the field made it, in Fox’s words, “a putting competition” and he fell four shots short of the six-under-par cut line.

This week, an opposite-field week on the PGA Tour where the tour’s top players contest one tournament and lower-ranked players contest another event, Fox will be among the latter as he lines up at the Myrtle Beach Classic in South Carolina.

“Obviously I’d like to be at the other one playing for US$20 million at the Wells Fargo [Championship]. That’s a golf course I’ve played well before at, but it is an opportunity this week,” Fox told the Herald.

“It’s a bit of a weaker field than what we’ve had, we’ve got a really good golf course in Myrtle Beach this week; I think everyone was surprised.

“It’s the first time they’ve had a tour stop here and no one really knew what to think. I was certainly pleasantly surprised when I played it on Tuesday that there’s a lot of really good golf holes; it’s in really good condition as well.”

Ranked at No 61 on the official golf world rankings, Fox goes into Myrtle Beach, with US$4m up for grabs, as the highest-ranked player in the field. By FedEx Cup ranking, which only accounts for the golfer’s performance on the PGA Tour in the calendar year, he ranks at No 52 in the 132-strong lineup.

He’ll still be keeping an eye on what’s going on over at the Wells Fargo, though, with the PGA Championship looming next week.

“I mean, those are the fields that you want to play in, so it’s always nice to keep an eye on what everyone’s doing. I’ve still got a couple of chances to play my way into the signature events this year and that’s what I’ll be trying to do for the rest of the year.”

The Dunes Golf and Beach Club offers plenty of scoring opportunities this week, however the constant presence of water, as well as lurking bunkers around the green mean it is a course where a lack of control and accuracy will be punished.

“It’s going to be a pretty strong test of golf actually, which is probably the opposite of what you’d normally expect in an opposite-field event,” Fox said.

“It’s a pretty resorty course and it’s going to be low scoring, but there’s going to be some wind this week. It’s right on the beach and there’s a fair bit of trouble around and it’s a relatively strong golf course; got some length on it as well, so I’m looking forward to the test.

“The fairway bunkers aren’t too bad, there’s a fair bit of water off the tee and around a couple of the greens, but the greenside bunkers are really nasty; really deep and the greens are sneaky slopey as well. They’re going to be able to trick it up this week, whether they do it or not I’m not sure with the wind. It’s just a really good golf course.”

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