Ryan Fox will participate in the Australian Open, which begins on Thursday. Photo/Getty Images
Ryan Fox is looking to end his phenomenal year on a high at the historic mixed Australian Open in Melbourne.
The world number 27 missed the cut at last week’s Australian PGA Championship, five days after finishing in the top 20 at the DP World Tour season finale in Dubai, with Fox blaming his woes in Brisbane to jet lag.
The two Australian tournaments are co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour and mark the start of the new season. After a campaign that saw him win two titles on tour, produce a slew of top-10 finishes and end the year ranked second behind world number 1 Rory McIlroy on the Order of Merit, Fox is looking forward to getting home next week.
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But first, two of Australasia’s best golf courses await with the tournament hosted at Victoria Golf Club and Kingston Heath in Melbourne’s sandbelt.
Fox is one of 12 New Zealanders in the field and gets going alongside Australian Marc Leishman and Dane Rasmus Hoigaard in the first round (14:27) at Victoria Golf Club on Thursday.
“I slept until 11am on Saturday, which I haven’t done in about 15 years, so that shows how tired I was last week. The rest has probably been a good thing and I definitely feel a little better this week,” Fox said.
What excites Fox about this week’s tournament is the location.
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“It’s probably two of the best golf courses in the world this week.
“Kingston Heath is always up there as one of the best in Australia and Victoria is arguably not far behind that. So yeah, it’s easy to get up for this one. The Australian Open is a pretty big event with a lot of history and it’s a couple of golf courses that I’ve played quite a bit of over the years.
“I would love to play well this week. There has probably been a bit of a dip from last season, although that was only a week and a half ago at this point. But I’m definitely feeling a bit more refreshed and I’ll give it a good shot this week. And the plan is no different than any other week this year, just go out there and try to beat the golf course and be there on Sunday afternoon.”
It’s a packed field with Cam Smith, Adam Scott, Leishman and Fox leading the men’s contenders and top Australian women Minjee Lee and Hannah Green in the women’s field.
“They’ve done very well on the pitch and I think Melbourne will come out strong to support them, which will be good.”
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While Fox will end his year on Sunday afternoon, assuming he makes the cut, he still won’t put away the clubs. He’s the headlining act in a six-hole challenge at Royal Auckland next Friday. Six celebrity teams will play six holes, with Fox playing two holes with each group. The groups will play with Ambrose, while Fox will play with his own ball.
“It will be fun,” Fox said. “Being able to play six holes at Royal will be great. And we have big celebrities and athletes that come to play. The format looks interesting. Hopefully I can be fit because I think I’m going to have to play pretty good to beat a couple of three-man Ambrose teams.”
Famous teams from ‘Chasing the Fox’:
Rugby: Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett, Damian McKenzie
Cricket: Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Mitch Santner
Olympics: Eric Murray, Simon Child, Tom Abercrombie
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New Zealand Warriors: Shaun Johnson, Wayde Egan, Freddy Lussick
Politics – John Key, David Seymour, Max Key
Media: Justin Marshall, Mark Richardson, Third Member TBC
For tickets and more information, visit www.supersixgolf.com.
Source: news.google.com