Benefiting from one of the ten spots up for grabs on the Race to Dubai 2023 “qualifying” for the PGA Tour 2024, Ryan Fox does not have great memories of this first season across the Atlantic where individualism and the difficulty in making friends is commonplace.
Ryan Fox, statements
Like many players who are not from the PGA Tour and who arrive in the United States from the European Tour, Ryan Fox, defending champion of the BMW PGA Championship, spoke this Tuesday in Wentworth (England) at a press conference about the difficulties he encountered in adapting to a Circuit that he was really discovering this season as a full member thanks to one of the ten spots won at the end of 2023 via the Race to Dubai.
“It’s really difficult,” he sighs from the outset. It’s probably more trying than I expected. I traveled with my family for 20 weeks straight there. I’ve been on the road for 30 weeks. When I came home after the Wyndham Championship (missed the cut), I’d only been home for four weeks this year. So it was really tough at that level.”
The 37-year-old New Zealander hasn’t played his best golf in 2024 on the PGA Tour. While he’s made the cut 13 times, he’s only had three top-10 finishes, finishing fourth twice (at the Zurich Classic with South African Garrick Higgo) and then the Myrtle Beach Classic and seventh at the RBC Canadian Open. He nevertheless secured his 2025 card by finishing 106th in the FedEx Cup, including making all four cuts in the Majors (25th at The Open).
“We didn’t have a base camp in the States, I hadn’t yet sorted out the formalities to get my visa. The competition seemed a lot more intense than I expected. I think last year when I played a little bit there, I played some of the bigger events, but I was playing really well and I started this year maybe not playing that well, and I missed a few cuts, but just a few. I felt like I had to do a lot more to get myself in contention, let alone make the cut, and it took me a while to understand that. I never really got into it. I had a few decent weeks without it being spectacular. I started to feel confident around May, June, July…”
During this press conference, the Kiwi, son of the All Black legend, Grant Fox, took the opportunity to mention the case of the Scot Robert MacIntyre who, himself, had a very difficult adaptation period before winning the RBC Canadian at the beginning of June. The two golfers, coming from the European Tour, supported each other.
“We both had difficulties at the beginning and we did not have much fun,” he confesses. The week where we both had our best week at that time was at Myrtle Beach where we played the first two rounds together. I think Bob said to me on the first tee, ‘It’s great to play with someone I can chat with a little bit and know I can like him a little bit.’ Same for me. We knew each other well, we both finished in the top 10 and he got off to a good start because of that. He had a little break at home and it reinvigorated him a little bit.”
“All that to say, it’s tough out there (in the States). Everyone does their own thing. I don’t know why. I think we both struggled with that. I travel with my family so the solitude off the golf course wasn’t there, but I still found it pretty hard to make friends. I think the Europeans have sort of banded together. It was fun to play a little golf with Bob and it’s pretty amazing to see what he did at the end of the season.” I played with him in the third round in Canada, and we had a good time in the last group.”