7 LISTENER FEBRUARY 29 2020
T
here ought to be a
name for the kind of
year top Kiwi golfer
Ryan Fox had in- A word for a
year that encompassed winning his
first European Tour tournament,
getting married and winning the
PGA Tour of Australasia Order of
Merit, but that also saw him fight-
ing his way out one of the worst
slumps of his career.
You could call his 2019 a roller
coaster, up and down, a bit mad.
The phlegmatic Fox settles on
mixed. “There was a lot of frustra-
tion and some poor golf in the
middle of last year,” he says. “But
there was a lot of good stuff as
well. On the personal side, the year
treated me very well. I played nicely
at the British Open, had my best
run at a major and won in Perth.
“I ticked off a few goals and let a
few things slip. So, yeah, a mixed
year.”
It wasn’t supposed to be that way.
The auguries promised a strong
2019 after Fox, the 33-year-old son
of former All Black Grant Fox, had
one of his best years in golf in 2018.
That year, he finished second in
the Irish Open, in the top three at
the Maybank Championship in
Malaysia, and in the top eight at
the Italian Open and the ScottishOpen, finishing at No 22 on the
European Tour and winning over
$2.8 million in prize money.
And within weeks of teeing off
in 2019, Fox had won his first
European Tour title, the ISPS Handa
World Super 6 at Perth in February.
That heady maiden European Tour
victory earned him a tour exemp-
tion for 2020, a $250,000 prize and
an invitation to play at the follow-
ing week’s prestigious WGC Mexico
Championship. “At that point, I
was kind of thinking I could reach
the top 50 in the world, that this
could be achievable with a couple
of good results. Unfortunately, it
didn’t happen.”2019 was a roller-
coaster ride for
top Kiwi golfer
Ryan Fox.
Best of times,
worst of times
THE 101st NEW ZEALAND OPEN
“Sometimes
golf is a
funny game
like that,
something
clicks
and it all
feels good
again.”