Ryan Fox will appear in his seventh Open Championship this week. Photo / AP
Ryan Fox will appear in his seventh Open Championship this week. Photo / AP
Royal Liverpool will be hosting the Open Championship for the 13th time this week but it will be a new experience for Kiwi world number 42 Ryan Fox.
Fox will appear in his seventh Open Championship and is expecting a typical links set-up at Royal Liverpool, which is about a20-minute drive from Liverpool, located in the small seaside town of Hoylake.
Expecting, because up until this morning he had yet to play the course.
“I’ve never played it, so I just did some practice today and we’ll head out tomorrow to see it for the first time. I’ve not seen any, any bit of it whatsoever,” he told NZME’s The Country Sport Breakfast.
“I’ve heard it’s pretty standard as a links golf course. There’s a couple of quirky little things about it but there’s no big slopes or really funny bounces. You can expect a very fair test of golf.
“Hopefully what I’ve heard is right and it looks like we’re probably going to get a little bit of weather this week. A bit of rain. Potentially a bit of wind is expected in the Open Championship. I’m sure that’ll make the golf course pretty tricky.”
Fox has been given an early tee time for the opening round, part of the third group on the course alongside Australian Lucas Herbert and Byeong Hun An of Korea at 5.57pm NZT on Thursday.
World number two Rory McIlroy goes into the event as a strong favourite coming off a stunning victory at the Scottish Open yesterday. The Northern Irishman also won the last Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in 2014.
Fox performed well in the Scottish Open finishing tied for 12th after a month-long break in the wake of the US Open. He has 11 top 30 finishes across the PGA Tour and DP World Tour this season proving he’s been there or thereabouts, but he has yet to crack a top 10 in 2023.
Fox’s best showing at the Open Championship was in 2019 when he finished tied-16th at Royal Portrush. The British links courses suit him with his victory last year at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship played across three links courses - St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. It was also a field that included the likes of former Open winners McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Louis Oosthuizen and Pádraig Harrington.
“I’ve always loved playing links golf. I’ve had some good results on the European Tour playing links golf courses. So hopefully I can translate that into a decent week. Obviously, it’s one of the strongest fields in golf being a major championship, everyone in the top 50 here this week. But I feel like if my game turns up, I can compete with those guys. And it’s showing signs of being there after last week, which is nice,” Fox said.
Fox will be joined in the field by fellow Kiwi Daniel Hillier who earned his place with his maiden DP World Tour victory at the British Masters earlier this month. It will be the 24-year-old’s second appearance at the Open after missing the cut at Royal St George’s in 2021.
Daniel Hillier of New Zealand poses with the British Masters trophy. Photo / AP
Just two years ago they were battling it out for the Muriwai Open title and now they will practice together as they look to join Sir Bob Charles, Michael Campbell and Lydia Ko as major winners.
“Having another Kiwi out there is great. He’s had a lot of talent and a lot of us for quite a long time. He’s probably touted as our best prospect as a professional golfer when he turned pro a couple of years ago and it’s great to see him live up to that potential.
“He had a couple of great weeks in the lead up to British Masters, gave himself a couple of chances to win. Thankfully that didn’t deter him that week of British Masters ... some finish to win that with five under in the last four holes. Couldn’t think of a better way to win, especially your first event in an iconic championship on the DP World Tour. So really chuffed for him.”
Hillier tees off at 10.47pm with Korea’s Kyung Nam Kang and Kensei Hirata of Japan.
