Golf: Ryan Fox prepares to tee off at the French Open without his golf clubs

When it rains it pours has rung true for golfer Ryan Fox as he prepares to return to the DP World Tour at this week’s French Open in Paris tonight.

A meniscus tear in his
knee forced him out of the PGA Championship at Wentworth and last week’s Italian Open in Rome. But doctors gave him the all-clear to return this week at another of the flagship Tour events.

Fox who is seventh on the Tour Order of Merit and 47th in the world rankings, flew across the English Channel from Heathrow on Monday but his golf bag failed to arrive. He was told by Air France it would be delivered Tuesday morning but on the eve of the tournament (Wednesday night Paris time) there’s no sign of the bag and no indication as to where it is.

“It’s obviously been a bad couple of weeks having missed a couple of tournaments with an injury and then you get back on tour and the clubs decide not to turn up on a 45 minute flight. It’s frustrating to be told they would arrive yesterday afternoon and I haven’t had any update and obviously wrong Air France and they literally don’t know where they are,” Fox told the Herald.

So instead of focusing on practice ahead of one of the DP World Tour’s biggest tests at Le Golf National, the venue of the 2018 Ryder Cup, Fox has had to hastily arrange for a set of clubs to be built up.

“I had a set built up yesterday afternoon. The irons and wedges are easy to use. The shafts are pretty, pretty standard so there’s no issue there but I definitely had some issue with the woods and the putter. I couldn’t quite get the exact driver shaft I use, I’ve got something similar and it’s been going alright in practice. So we’ll see how that goes. The three wood is completely new this week. I’ve got a custom-built putter from Fine Tune in New Zealand and obviously I can’t get one of those at short notice,” Fox said.

“So I’ve sort of had to go around the trucks and scrounge what I could and manage I’m using a Ping Anser this week which was made up this afternoon and I haven’t had a go with it on the golf course this week So we will see how that goes tomorrow.

“But I’ve tried to replicate what I’ve got as best as possible. So probably the biggest thing for me is I’ve got flat feet and I’ve worn orthotics forever since I’ve played any level of golf and they ‘re in my golf shoes, which is in my golf bag, which is somewhere in London or Paris at the moment.

“So I’ve had to buy a pair of shoes with no orthotics. So it’s going to be interesting to see how the ankle and the knee hold up to that which is quite different than normal,” Fox lamented.

Fox’s form has dipped since the first half of the season where he won a tournament in the Middle East and finished runner up on three occasions. He hasn’t played much since the Open Championship in July due to a scheduled break and then his knee injury suffered while walking from the kitchen to the BBQ, and had hoped to turn things around in Paris this week. But his expectations have changed.

“The expectations are not massively high, which is not a bad thing. It’s a tough golf course. So I’ll just go out and plug my way around. I don’t think it’s going to be a week where you’re going to need to shoot 20 under par and if you can go a couple under par each day you are going to have a pretty good chance this week. So that’s kind of the plan, don’t do anything stupid. Just try to keep it in play.”

Not having his regular driver for the opening round at least could prove problematic for Fox. One of the longest hitters on Tour, he has been unable to replicate his shaft.

“Unfortunately, I use kind of a shaft that’s not overly common and my spare shaft is in my golf bag, which is obviously not with me at the moment. So we looked around every one of the tour trucks and no one had that exact spec in the shaft. So we’ve tried to match it as close as possible and again, found something that’s worked pretty well in the, in the pro-am so far and yeah, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. I’m not too worried about it. It feels like it feels pretty solid. It’s gone well, so hopefully there’s not too much different than normal,” Fox said.

Fox gets underway at 6:10pm NZT (8:10am Paris) and he hopes the clubs arrive in time for the second round where he has a Friday afternoon tee time.