It has been quite the journey for New Zealander Ryan Fox, whose career has played out on its own world tour, defined by victories on several continents in a variety of countries, on tours small and large.
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His latest addition to his trophy collection came Sunday via a playoff victory over Sam Burns in the RBC Canadian Open at the TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley in Caledon, Ontario.
It was his second PGA Tour victory a month apart, following a win in the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic in May. It took four playoff holes to do it, but he sealed the victory with a brilliant 3-wood second shot at the par-5 18th hole from 235 metres to six feet of the hole for an easy two-putt birdie.
“Sam let me off the hook big time there that first playoff hole. I’d almost given him that. We had a couple scrappy holes there, and then to hit the shot I hit on 18 on the fourth playoff, it was pretty surreal. It’s the best shot I’ve ever hit in my life. There’s nothing close to that.
“Now, again, Sam probably let me off the hook three-putting there, but I felt like I put pressure on him with that shot. It was pretty cool to have a nice little tap-in there and kind of soak it all in.”
Fox, 38, now has produced multiple wins on the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour (four), the PGA Tour of Australasia (three), the Challenge Tour (two) and New Zealand’s Charles Tour (three).
Burns, seeking a sixth PGA Tour victory and first in two years, shot a final-round eight-under 62 and spent the next two hours as the leader in the clubhouse. Several players threatened to tie him, but fell short, while Fox holed a 17-foot birdie putt on 18 for a round of four-under 66 that put him into a playoff. The ensuing victory earned him a start in the US Open this week given he moved inside the necessary top 60 on the world rankings to No.32
“It feels like yesterday we were doing this at Myrtle Beach,” he said. “I played the PGA and Memorial since then and seem to be making a habit of getting into majors last minute, which is not a bad problem to have.
“Yeah, my head’s spinning. Obviously, I knew I was playing good golf coming into this week. Just wanted to give myself a chance come Sunday afternoon. I did that and was really happy with how I conducted myself today. I was really patient early. Felt like I wasn’t quite there. As I said, I hit some great shots down the stretch to get into that playoff.”
He won with his own cheering section, too, the New Zealand All Whites, the country’s national soccer team, in town to compete in the Canadian Shield Tournament in Toronto. It, too, had delivered a memorable victory for the homeland, upsetting Ivory Coast, 1-0, the day before.
“That was really cool,” he said. “They had a great win against the Ivory Coast last night. To have the Kiwi support out there, it was great. They were there all day. We seem to have a lot of weeks where random Kiwis pop up, and to have the All Whites say, ‘hey, is there any chance we can come out and watch on Sunday was really cool. To be able to meet them all there at the end and get a photo with them was pretty special. Hopefully that buoys them on a little bit for their game against Ukraine on Tuesday.”
Fox became the second New Zealander to win the Canadian Open, joining the great Bob Charles, who won it in 1968.
“That’s very cool,” Fox said.
