Golf: Ryan Fox returns home for the final challenge of the year

After nearly 250 days away from New Zealand, in which his world ranking climbed from 213 at the start of the year to a career high of 24, Ryan Fox is finally home and ready to entertain fans at a charity event in Auckland on Friday.

The New Zealand golfer, who finished second behind Rory McIlroy in the Race to Dubai DP World Tour standings, has one final challenge for the year before he puts his golf clubs away until 2023.

Fox, who is currently ranked 29th, is headlining the inaugural Chasing the Fox challenge at the Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club on Friday. The first of its kind in New Zealand, six Ambrose teams, plus Fox playing his own ball, will compete across six holes with the lowest score winning. There are no handicaps.

The teams are made up of some of New Zealand’s best sporting talent across numerous codes. Fox will play two holes with each group.

All Blacks Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett and Damien McKenzie form the rugby team, with Black Caps Lockie Ferguson, Ross Taylor and Mitch Santner representing cricket. The Olympics team features Eric Murray, Simon Child and Tom Abercrombie, while the Warriors team includes Shaun Johnson, Freddie Lusick and Wade Egan. John Key, Max Key and David Seymour make up the politics team, while Justin Marshall, Mark Richardson and Leon MacDonald form the legends team.

“It’s a hard format. I did try earlier this year with some mates and played three-man Ambrose and they are all single figure handicappers and I got hammered. So I am going to have to play well; it will be fun,” Fox said.

“It’s a nice exhibition for golf in New Zealand. I think we’ve got lots of celebrities who are mad keen on golf. Probably the big one on that is Eric Murray. I think Eric is keener on golf than I am to be honest and he seems to be super excited. Hopefully we will see a lot of people out there and we will get some decent weather as well.”

Tickets can be purchased for the event at Supersixgolf.com and teams of three can play the course before the main event begins at 5pm.

After Friday, Fox plans to spend as much time as possible out fishing on his boat while he is back in New Zealand.

“I am generally pretty good about putting my clubs away. Will probably play socially with some mates, but still hoping to put the clubs away for three weeks or so and then get in to enjoy the Kiwi summer, Christmas with the family. I think I’ll go away again [to the Middle East] on the 15th of January.”

Fox will compete in the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Dubai Desert Classic before defending his title at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in the UAE, before playing a new tournament in Singapore on the way home to New Zealand from February 9-12.

From there Fox isn’t quite sure how his schedule will pan out but it’s likely to include a stint playing in the US and missing the New Zealand Open being played from March 2-5 at Millbrook.

If he maintains a ranking inside the world’s top 50, the New Zealand number one will be eligible to play the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando which clashes directly with the NZ Open.

“I have to leave it quite late because the ranking cut off is about two weeks before the Arnold Palmer for the top 50 and if I’m in it’s probably one I have to go and play as it’s such a huge career opportunity and one good week in one of those events could literally change my life,” Fox said.

“The NZ Open is a really important event for me as well and if it doesn’t happen next year, I will certainly be back many times in the future. It’s just unfortunate and will be a late call and I hope everyone will understand it’s nothing against the New Zealand Open, it’s just a career opportunity that’s too hard to turn down.”

Fox is also eyeing up the chance to play at golf’s unofficial fifth major, The Player’s Championship, at TPC Sawgrass the week after Bay Hill. He would also likely play the World Golf Championship match play in Texas in late March before a debut at the Masters in early April at Augusta.