Ryan Fox set to ride out lightning in Texas

By Christopher Reive

Ryan Fox is prepared to ride out the lightning.

Following up a strong showing at the Masters with a T4 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last week, the Kiwi ace heads into this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas with some form on his side.

But while he’s rediscovered some form after a tough run to start his PGA Tour season, it’s an external factor that he has to plan for at TPC Craig Ranch.

“We’ve got thunderstorms forecast every day, and tomorrow and Saturday look potentially really bad,” Fox told the Herald.

“You go into the week knowing it’s probably going to be a very stop-start kind of week. There’s the potential I may not even play tomorrow if the forecast is as bad as some of them are showing. [But] it might be completely fine and we get away with it. We’re just in that part of the world this time of year, which it tends to be all over the place.”

Rain and thunderstorms are expected to have an impact on the opening round overnight, and with Fox among the late tee times, he’s prepared for whatever variables might come into play.

“If we get some storms, I could potentially play 36 holes on Friday or 27 holes or whatever,” Fox said.

“You feel like you’re going to have a long day and you’ve got to kind of prepare for that and be mentally ready to do that, but for the most part, especially in the US, it seems you’ve got to deal with storms and you’ve got to deal with some weather delays and it’s all just part of it and you kind of get used to it.”

Fox comes into the event back inside the top 125 on the FedEx Cup standings, which is the minimum mark he needs to hit at the end of the season to retain his tour card for 2025.

The T4 finish in last week’s team event, in which he played alongside South African Garrick Higgo, saw Fox jump 21 places up the FedEx Cup standings.

With plenty more golf to come this year, he heads to Texas with his game in a good place.

“The last couple of weeks I’ve driven the ball really well, I’ve started to hit my irons, which has probably been a tough part this year, and the short game is coming right,” Fox said.

“Especially on Sunday last week, I holed a lot of putts. Every part of the game is starting to trend in the right direction.

“Golf’s a weird game in that regard – it could completely desert me tomorrow for no reason, but I’m definitely starting to feel like the game is starting to click and I’ve actually got some confidence in the game and feel like I can shoot a score which is the first time in a couple of months that I’ve really felt that.”

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