[PHOTO: Getty Images]
After a whirlwind, breakthrough year on the PGA Tour, Ryan Fox is hungry to become the first New Zealander in 26 years to win the Australian PGA.
Not since Greg Turner won the 1999 Australian PGA Championship at Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne has a New Zealander lifted the Joe Kirkwood Cup.
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Fox, a three-time Olympian who claimed his maiden PGA Tour win at Myrtle Beach in May before a second title at the Canadian Open in June, has the firepower and winning momentum to break the drought when he tees up at Royal Queensland from November 27-30.
“Hopefully we can change that this year and I’ll certainly be giving it my best crack and I’m sure all the other Kiwis in the field will be doing the same; we’ve got a strong Kiwi contingent that’s going to play there this year,” Fox said of the fact he and fellow New Zealanders Kazuma Kobori and Daniel Hillier are confirmed for the Australian PGA.
The re-energised Australian PGA has carved out a fantastic identity in Brisbane at Royal Queensland and over the past three years has seen Cameron Smith, Min Woo Lee and Elvis Smylie emerge victorious. Royal Queensland has undergone a thoughtful re-design and sits perfectly for travelling fans just north of the city and close to the airport.
The PGA is also co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and is the first tournament of the globe-trotting circuit’s wraparound season. For that reason, a host of emerging and well-known European players take the opportunity to travel to Brisbane and get a head-start on accruing season-long points that will eventually determine whether they progress to the Race to Dubai finals 11 months later. The European golfers join the Australian stars such as Smith, Adam Scott and others to make a quality field.
Fox, a four-time DP World Tour winner before joining the PGA Tour in the US, knows better than most how beneficial it is to play well at the Australian PGA. The Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia also awards three cards on the DP World Tour at the end of its domestic season in March, and the Australian PGA is a huge springboard for the hopeful chasers.
“I think it’s huge,” Fox said of winning or contending at the Australian PGA. “Obviously with the wraparound schedule, come off one season straight into the next, and if you start a season well, it just makes everything easier to be honest. Obviously winning is the ultimate [outcome] knowing you’ve got status going forward, setting yourself up to get into those big events at the end of the season.
“If you play well at the Aussie PGA and the [co-sanctioned] Aussie Open, or even those events in South Africa at the start of the year, you just set yourself up for a really good year. The last couple of years when I didn’t play in Australia or in 2022 when I kind of played poorly to start the 2023 season, you feel like you’re just a little bit behind the eight ball. You’ve got guys with a bunch of points and all of a sudden you’re like, well, guys have played four or five events, either I haven’t played one or I’ve played poorly and I’m a decent amount behind on the order of merit already. So to have a good start, I think it’s great for your confidence. It takes a bit of the pressure off for the rest of the season and you can go into a bit of a summer break feeling really good about yourself.”
