What Ryan Fox needs to do to qualify for 2025 majors

By Christopher Reive

Ryan Fox’s pathway into the 2025 Masters has become as difficult as it is simple.

“Win, basically. I don’t think I’ve got any other option.”

To earn another invitation to Augusta, Fox would need to win either this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open or next week’s Valero Texas Open or be inside the top 50 on the official world golf ranking when it is updated next week.

“I haven’t done any maths on it, but I’d think I’d have to win to get into the top 50, and a win would get me into the Masters anyway. So that’s the goal for the next two weeks: get a W and get myself back to Augusta.”

As it stands, Fox — currently ranked 109 in the world — has qualified to compete in one major championship this season, earning an invitation to The Open courtesy of his win at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2023.

There is, however, still plenty of time for him to move up the rankings to meet the criteria for a return to the PGA Championship (May 16-19) and US Open (June 13-16).

If going by world ranking, Fox would need to be inside the top 100 on May 6 for the PGA Championship and the top 60 on May 20 or June 10 for the US Open.

“I’ve got a chance to play my way into the top 60 in the world by then. I’ve got a fair bit of work to do to do that, but at least I’m playing on the right tour to pick up some world ranking points quickly if you play well.”

The Kiwi was hopeful that would begin in Houston after he finished in a tie for 47th at the Valspar Championship last week.

Coming into that tournament off a top-20 finish at The Players Championship, Fox admits he had a strange week.

“I shot three-under in the first round, which was quite comfortably the worst I could have shot. I think I was pretty much first in the field in approach play and pretty much last in the field with the putter. That was a bit frustrating.”

“Then for two days I felt like I couldn’t really play golf at all and the short game and the putter worked really well over those middle two rounds to salvage some type of score.

“Then I played pretty solid in the last round for the most part. There were a couple of shots here and there, but after the middle two rounds, two-under [for the round] was a pretty good score.”

Finishing inside the top 50 added to a decent start to the season for the Kiwi, who has now made the cut in three of his five PGA Tour events as well as a couple of solid results on the DP World Tour before that.

It’s a better platform than the one he laid a year ago, where he missed the cut in four of his first six PGA Tour events.

“I probably have compared myself to last year, more in that fact that I haven’t felt like I’ve had anything click yet,” he said.

“Even though it doesn’t quite feel right, there’s still be some half-decent results in there so I can look at it in a positive way and say I know I’m in a better place than last year and know traditionally I’ve played a lot of my better golf during the May-June-July period.

“I’d like to fire up a little bit sooner than that obviously, but I’ve still got plenty of golf to play both on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour this year, so I’m going to find some form at some point.

“It feels pretty close at the moment; I’ve just got to put four rounds together, which I’ve struggled to do a little bit over the last couple of years.”

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