Top 50 milestone has NZ golfer gunning for Masters debut

As he holidays in the south of France, Ryan Fox sips a well-deserved glass of red wine with Augusta on his mind.

Photo: photosport

Thanks to a 2022 that “couldn’t have gone better” so far, the world’s biggest golf tournament was finally within reach for New Zealand’s best player.

One win, three runner-ups and three other top 10s on the increasingly competitive DP World Tour had fired Fox inside the world’s top 50 for the first time.

A ranking of 48th not bad for a player who started the year outside the top 200.

With that top 50 berth attained, the 35-year-old Aucklander’s main goal for the rest of 2022? Don’t let it go.

“There’s a big payoff to stay in that top 50,” Fox said as it was announced he would return to this side of the world for the Australian PGA Championship and Australian Open in November and December.

“Probably the biggest one for me would be The Masters. If I’m in the top 50 at the close of the calendar year, that’s when that invite comes and that’s the one [major] I’m missing.

“I’d certainly love to get that.”

It wasn’t the only benefit of a top 50 ranking.

Hold onto it and Fox would also get an automatic spot at the three other majors and many of the bigger PGA Tour events, such as Memorial, The Players Championship and the World Matchplay.

The positive by-products of Fox’s impressive push didn’t end there.

His hot form also had him right in contention for a place in the International line-up for next month’s President’s Cup against the US.

While he wouldn’t get an automatic spot as a top eight finisher in the rankings, Fox would be keeping his phone close when the team was announced and Trevor Immelman made his four captain’s pick on Monday (NZ time).

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

“The President’s Cup has been on the goal list all year….

“I spoke to [Trevor] for the first time at The Open this year and he just said ‘well done, keep it going kind of thing’.

“We’ve been in comms a couple times since then. There’s no doubt I’m at least in fold there for a pick.

“It’s going to be quite hard [because] I’d be the only guy not playing on the PGA Tour. Whether that counts against me or not I don’t know but I’d love to get that call.”

A call that would put him into an exclusive group of New Zealand golfers to have played the President’s Cup.

“I think there’s only been four. Danny [Lee], Cambo (Michael Campbell), Greg Turner and Frank Nobilo.

“To join that list would be pretty cool, and [the event] showcases the best golfers outside of the US and Europe, so if you make that team you’re one of them, which is a huge honour.

“The International team has struggled a little bit over the years so it’d be nice to be in a team to go and take it to the US on US soil.”

And speaking of US soil, it was hard to avoid the drama unfolding there surrounding the LIV Golf series.

PGA Tour players, including superstars Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, had met this week to discuss the issues being created by the new Saudi-backed league.

Fox said he hadn’t entertained any offers, and described the ongoing saga as “entertaining, if not annoying” to observe from afar.

“It’s a mess, isn’t it?

“Obviously a lot of big names have come out against it in Tiger [Woods] and Rory [McIlroy] and those guys, and I’m probably in that boat.

“I think it takes away from the traditions of golf that you earn everything on merit, in making cuts and earning your way on tour, that’s a big part of our game…

“Some of the numbers being thrown around are absurd and the lawsuits and everything like that but the disruption is also a bit frustrating for our game.”

As well as playing in the two events in Australia at the end of this year, Fox said he was also hoping to get home and feature in next year’s New Zealand Open.