Ryan Fox came up short of his third title this year in Mallorca. Photo / Getty
Ryan Fox didn’t capitalize on a winning position in the final round of the Mallorca Open at the weekend, but his performance has ensured he’s likely to achieve another first at the season ending US$10
million DP World Tour Championship event in Dubai next month.
Fox (3,246 points) has leapfrogged US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick (3,155.5) to second in the Tour standings, behind new world No 1 Rory McIlroy (4,154), after finishing tied for fourth in Mallorca.
With the Englishman apparently not planning on playing again until the November 17-20 finale, Fox will be paired with the Northern Irishman in the first round.
“If you’d have said that to me, at the start of the year, I kind of would have laughed at you and said, ‘Yeah, I’d just be happy to try to get a win [on Tour] and make sure I’ve got a job for next year after how the previous couple of years have gone,” Fox said.
The New Zealander started the year ranked 213 and is now 26th in the world after two DP World Tour wins and a handful of top-five finishes. The Harry Vardon Trophy for winning the Order of Merit will be Fox’s if he can beat McIlroy and the other top 50 DP World Tour players in the field for the title at the Jumeirah Golf Estates.
McIlroy, who won the CJ Cup on the PGA Tour on Monday to reclaim the world No 1 ranking, will be chasing the European Order of Merit title for the fourth time.
“To know I am going into the last event with a chance and probably playing with Rory for the first round at least is cool in itself,” Fox said. “And yeah, I’m going to give it a decent crack and see if I can at least make it interesting for him. He’s playing some of the best golf of his career so I’m going to have to do something seriously impressive over the next couple of weeks to, to get ahead of him.
“But stranger things have happened in this game and I will give it as good a crack as I can.”
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Before then Fox has a couple of weeks off before heading to Sun City in South Africa for the US$6 million Nedbank Challenge where he will look to make inroads into McIlroy’s commanding points lead.
“The one good thing going into Sun City this year compared to previous years I’ve played it is that I should be a lot fresher than I have been in the past. I’d played a lot of a lot of golf and was kind of burnt out and that’s a golf course that just eats you up at altitude, it’s hot, the wind swirls through the valley.
“But I feel like I’ve got a few extra shots that I didn’t have the last time I played it and am definitely in control of the driver a fair bit more than I was before. So hopefully that helps me out and I can go in there with a pretty good mentality.”
Fox is measured after squandering a chance to win a third Tour title this year at the Mallorca Open. He was tied for the lead heading into the final round but carded a three-over final round to finish in a tie for fourth, two shots off the winner Yannik Paul.
“I played well on Friday and Saturday and unfortunately the putting let me down which it hasn’t really this year. I just had a bad day on the greens. I had three good days on the greens prior to that, and it just shows how golf can be such a fickle game sometimes. But it was certainly nice to be in the mix again, and I almost made it a Kiwi triple on the weekend.”
New Zealand took victories on the women and senior tours at the weekend, with Lydia Ko winning the LPGA Tour’s BMW International in South Korea, and Steven Alker claiming the PGA Champions Tour’s Dominion Energy Charity Classic to extend his lead in the Charles Schwab Cup money list standings.
Fox is amazed with what Alker has achieved.
“What Steve Alker has done has been seriously impressive – with four wins this year and out of all the Champions Tour events he’s played, he’s had more top fives than results outside the top 10, or something silly like that. It’s scary how good he is. He’s probably the hottest golfer on the planet.”
As for Ko, Fox is delighted for the former world No 1.
“She’s probably had a lean couple of years for her high standards and to see her come back with a vengeance this year and play as well as she has done as has been impressive. Kiwi golf is in a really good place.”
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