Ryan Fox has just played his first full season on the PGA Tour, and he can certainly be proud of his efforts.
It was never going to be easy for the New Zealander following his rookie status, particularly given the form of the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.
Scheffler is even good at pickleball, but the world number one seemingly still has a lot he wants to achieve in golf first.
Fox will be in a similar situation at this stage, with the 37-year-old currently looking to impress on the DP World Tour.
But form isn’t on his side at this moment in time, with the New Zealand ace having recently missed cuts at the Irish Open and the Wyndham Championship.
Ryan Fox reveals shock from his first full PGA Tour season
That said, he should still be in high spirits ahead of the upcoming BMW PGA Championship given that he won the competition this time last year.
Asked to describe his 2024 PGA Tour season in his BMW PGA Championship press conference, Fox said: “It’s definitely been tough. It’s probably been a bit more of a grind than I expected. You know, I travel with the family for 20 weeks in a row there. I’ve been on the road for 30 weeks.
“By the time I got home after the Wyndham Championship, I’ve only had four weeks at home total this year. So it was very tough in that regard.
“We didn’t have a base in the US, I kind of had not got visa stuff sorted. The competition depth-wise felt a lot stronger than I expected. I think last year when I played there a bit, I played some of the bigger events but was playing really well and kind of went into this year maybe not playing so well, and missed a few cuts not by much.
“But, you know, felt like I had to do a lot more to get myself in contention, let alone to make a cut and it took a while to kind of figure that out. Just never quite got it going over there.
“I had some decent weeks without it being spectacular, and you know, kind of hoping something is going to click at some point, this week would be lovely if it did, but I’ve got a few events over there at the end of the year. Started to feel confident around May, June, July, so hopefully that equates to playing better golf over there.”
Ryan Fox taking the positives from his PGA Tour season
Fox was hugely impressive at Wentworth last time out, finishing on 18 under after a fine final round of five under.
He edged out home favourites Aaron Rai and Tyrrell Hatton by just one shot, and held off strong competition elsewhere from the likes of Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland.
Justin Rose and Billy Horschel have already practised at Wentworth ahead of this week’s event, with Fox well aware of how important it is to get out there early before competitions.
“It’s a big change, I’m 37, being a rookie on the PGA Tour,” said Fox. “I had everything sorted over here. I kind of knew what schedule, how that was going to work, what events and all the travel and all that on the PGA Tour was new.
“Playing rounds on Tuesday trying to figure out a golf course competing against guys that have competed on it multiple times, the Pro-Ams… it makes Tuesday more important. They are long practise rounds, as well.
“A lot of five-and-a-half, six-hour practise rounds and guys going out, playing nine, just take my time and when you’re trying to play 18, it’s tough in that respect. The depth is there, and if you’re not quite on, it’s hard to compete and I felt like I was playing catch up a lot of the year in that respect.
“All the golf courses I had played over there, I didn’t get in all the Signature Events this year. It’s been a tough year but certainly can take some positives out of it.”
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