Ryan Fox makes cut after wild round at The Players Championship

By Christopher Reive

You can’t say Ryan Fox doesn’t know how to entertain an audience.

Going into his second round at The Players Championship in Florida, the Kiwi was flirting with the cut line after finishing even through 18 holes on Friday. At the end of that first round, he allowed himself a relatable display of frustration after a bogey on 18; picking his ball out of the hole and tossing it straight into the water.

It meant Fox would need to go under par in his second round if he was to take part in the weekend.

On Saturday morning, Fox carded a two-under 70 to improve to a tie for 49th on the leaderboard and make the cut by two shots.

Remarkably, his round included just six pars.

Beginning his round on the back nine, Fox made a strong start with birdies on two of his first three holes. By his seventh hole, however, he had given those two shots back.

That set the stage for an ongoing tussle between the golfer and the course; the battle ultimately won by Fox who handed in a card with seven birdies and five bogeys – including getting a shot back from the par-four 18th after it took one off him the day before.

Fox goes into the weekend nine shots off the lead, with Australian Min Woo Lee and American Akshay Bhatia sitting at 11-under.

American Justin Thomas posted the score of the round, tying a course record with a 10-under 62. That meant he turned his fortunes around after a dismal six-over first round and comfortably made the cut.

“That was one of the best rounds I’ve played, for sure,” Thomas said.

“I felt like I did an unbelievable job of just staying, keeping my eyes forward, keeping my blinders on, not looking backwards, forwards, anything like that.

“It was just, ‘how can I put this ball in the fairway off the tee?’ And then, ‘how can I make birdie?’, and let’s rinse and repeat.”

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