Defending champion Ryan Fox says he can't believe 'how much a year can change things' after 'ridiculous year' winning at two iconic venues on the DP World Tour in 12 months
Ryan Fox returns to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship after a year that has seen two life-changing days with victories at last year's Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and the BMW PGA Championship three weeks ago.
The 36-year-old New Zealander came from four shots behind during his triumph last year, which saw him guarantee his spot in the Masters and move to 25th on the Official World Golf Rankings. It was an emotional win for Fox, who won in front of his family while playing for the first time without former amateur team-mate and Australian cricket great Shane Warne, who had died that March.
Then three weeks ago, he added another big victory to his list of career wins at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last month. It was a win made even more meaningful due to family heartache he suffered earlier this year when his father-in-law Mike Ryff passed away following a short battle with cancer after the birth of his second child in May.
"It's been ridiculous," said Fox of his last 12 months.
"Coming off the 18th green here and Tim Barter going, "You're predicted 20-something in the world and you've booked yourself a spot in the Masters," and I had not thought about that all day thankfully.
"It's such an iconic event on tour and to win around here is a dream come true, especially after losing Warne early in the year, my playing part for a decent number of years here and getting to play in the Masters this year was special.
"And I still don't know what to think about the Wentworth and the BMW PGA. It's the best nine holes of golf I have ever played on that Sunday afternoon, especially considering the circumstances.
"I think it will take a little while process but it's amazing how much a day can change your kind of life and it's happened to me twice in the last two years. Once here Sunday last year and then that Sunday at Wentworth changed everything for next year.
"I had an interesting run last year, Mum and Dad had come up to watch four weeks of golf, I pulled out of Wentworth after the Thursday. I tore the meniscus in my knee. They went to Italy on Holiday Inn stead of me playing The Italian Open. I turned up in France on a still slightly dodgy knee. My golf clubs didn't turn up and I missed the cut, and this is the last week Mum and Dad were here.
"The whole goal at the start of the week was just to give them some golf to watch and make sure I kind of got four rounds in. Yeah just was one of those weeks where everything kind of worked. I obviously got myself in contention and played great on Sunday and to have Mum and Dad and my wife and my daughter, well, my first daughter, to see the whole thing was pretty incredible.
"Certainly made up for those few early weeks of Mum and Dad's trip. I know Dad was bouncing off the wall on Sunday. He's not a great person to watch golf with. If he doesn't have control of what's going on, it's pretty nerve-wracking and stressful for him. I imagine he was like that on Sunday. Thankfully I didn't notice too much of him outside the ropes.
"Yeah, it was great to have him there and witness that, and same at Wentworth a couple weeks ago. I had my wife and both my kids there, so pretty cool to share that with them as well."
Fox comes to this week after a missed cut at the Cazoo Open de France, but with fresh memories of his win at Wentworth and a tied third at the Horizon Irish Open. He's currently third on the Race to Dubai Rankings behind Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, but is aware he's got to have an incredible end to the year for that to happen.
Instead his focus is on securing one of the top ten PGA Tour cards available through the DP World Tour Rankings come the end of the season.
"I'd like to try to do it but Rory has had such an incredible year, obviously two wins in Rolex Series Events. Contending in a couple majors. It's going to be hard to chase him down no matter how well I play but the big goal for me, more at the start of the year, was to try to push for one of those top 10 spots.
"Obviously I had the chance to play a bunch in the States this year and get some experience over there. I've kind of ticked a lot of boxes in that respect this year. While chasing Rory and Jon down would certainly be something I would like to do but for the most part I will probably tick the goals off and the rest of the year, I can just try to win tournaments again which is kind of a cool place to be."
