Ryan Fox climbed up the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final leaderboard in spectacular fashion as a five under par second round of 67 moved him inside the top 20 on three under par at Muscat’s Almouj Golf, The Wave.
The New Zealander had seven birdies in his round, including five in a row from the sixth hole, as he bids to retain his place inside the top 15 of the Road to Oman Rankings and earn a European Tour card for next season.
The 28 year old won Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge earlier this year, aided by a course record of 62 in the first round, and knows how easy golf becomes when he gets on that kind of hot streak.
“I had birdie chances on pretty much every hole and I made five in a row around the turn which was really nice,” he said. “I played really solid all day. I hit one bad shot on 11 into the wasteland and missed a six-footer for par and I three-putted on 15 for my only other bogey, otherwise I scored really well.
“When you get on runs like that it does feel easy and you don’t really think about it, you just focus on targets and try to hit a good shot. I holed a few putts in the row and got hot with the putter, so it was nice to get it going for a little while.
“My aim this week is just to finish in that top 15 at the end of it all. I’m in a position where I control my own destiny so it would be nice to be in contention come Saturday afternoon and have a chance to win the tournament, but the focus is getting on The European Tour next year.
“There’s a little bit of added pressure this week I suppose but I’m trying not to think about it. Nothing’s secured, and I’d probably be worried about it a little bit more if I had a bit more money up and I just had to not play bad. Instead I’m in a position this week where I think I have to play half-decent so that makes it a little bit easier to get in the right mindset.”
Fox is the second notable sportsman from his family, following his father, Grant, who played fly-half for the New Zealand rugby team, winning the 1987 World Cup with them.
The All Blacks claimed their third World Cup last weekend and Fox is hoping he some of that feel good factor can rub off on him for the rest of this week.
“Obviously I enjoyed the Rugby World Cup hugely,” he said. “It would be great if I can keep the success going for New Zealand sport by winning out here myself.
“I was lucky enough to be back home in New Zealand when the game was on on Sunday morning and it was great to be a part of that. The whole country was buzzing and hopefully I can feed off the good vibes of the All Blacks and play well for the rest of the week.”
