After nearly four months away, New Zealand golfer Ryan Fox will rejoin the European Tour at the end of May.
Fox, who has kept himself active in New Zealand winning Charles Tour events at Gulf Harbour and Muriwai and is this week playing in the NZPGA Championship in Te Puke,says it's been a tough decision choosing when to return.
"My game is in good shape, I probably haven't worked with Wheelie [coach Marcus Wheelhouse] as much as we could have the last few weeks because I have been playing, we have kind of left it as is and it's been pretty good," Fox told Newstalk ZB.
"That was part of my decision, to go back a little later, so I do get some quality time with him because it will probably be six months before I see him in person again. Obviously, with a couple of wins on the Charles Tour and another at Wairakei in the pro-am last week, the game is in pretty good shape."
Fox had originally hoped to play at the British Masters (May 12-15) but has now opted to return to Europe two weeks later, at a tournament in Denmark.
"There was a couple of reasons; there's a week off after the British Masters and that's a bit frustrating for me because I would be leaving the family behind early on, so to go over and play the British Masters and then take a week off was going to be frustrating.
"The other reason was the vaccine side of things. I have heard from a few doctors and mates who have had the second shot, and they got whacked really hard, and I potentially could have lost two or three days prep with Wheelie before I flew after getting the second vaccine shot, so I thought it was a little better to wait, just in case something happens," Fox said.
Having a young family has made juggling international commitments a tough ask over the past year for Ryan Fox. Photo / Photosport
Fox will instead add the Scandinavian Mixed in Sweden to his schedule (June 10-13), which he wasn't intending to play, after the European Open in Germany the first week of June.
He will play the BMW International Open in Germany (June 24-27), the Irish Open (July 1-4) and the Scottish Open (July 8-11), before the only major Championship he will play this year, the British Open at Royal St George's (July 15-18).
Fox, whose ranking has slipped to 178 due to his inactivity, is confident he will have a decent lead-up into the Open, playing half a dozen tournaments. But, sitting 81st in the European Tour standings, he feels under some pressure to keep his Tour card for next season.
"I am definitely not comfortable in terms of rankings yet going on previous years, which is hard to work out with our new points system, but I am probably a third of the way there in terms of points; so have a lot of work to do.
"I will probably end up missing between five and eight events that I would have played otherwise in a normal year, so I may have to play a little more towards the back end of the year. But hopefully I will still have a full schedule and have no issue keeping my job for next year."
Fox is bracing himself for potentially several months away from his wife Anneke and his baby daughter Isabel who are unlikely to travel to the UK until Anneke has been vaccinated. Fox is hoping she can receive a vaccine to enable her to travel by July.
"Speaking to my manager in the UK, from what he can tell the UK is still on track to be open by late July and if the family can come up there it should be relatively normal."
