Ryan Fox returns to Augusta National for the Masters this week. Photo / Getty Images
Returning from a bout of kidney stones, Ryan Fox avoided the worst-case scenario.
The Kiwi golfer made his comeback at the Texas Children’s Houston Open a fortnight ago after missing two tournaments due to kidney stones, finishing with his first missed cut of the PGA Tour season.
It served an important purpose for the 39-year-old as he prepared to return to Augusta National for the Masters this week.
Fox said the forced break “was a weird one for me to be honest".
“It felt different than taking a break. You know, when you actually take a break, it’s refreshing and you come back and you’re excited.
“I definitely felt rustier coming back. I hadn’t touched a golf club in 10 days there and I hadn’t probably done very much work in the lead-up,” Fox told the Herald.
“But the main goal was to just get back on the course and have a hit-out and get those tournament feels flowing again, and I certainly didn’t want those tournament feels [of the] first game back being Thursday of Augusta.
“So yeah, it was nice to get those out of the system.”
Fox had always planned on skipping last week’s Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. However, he said he might have considered playing it had he not been able to return in Houston the week prior, for the sake of a pre-Masters hit out.
TPC San Antonio has not been a course Fox has navigated well historically – missing the cut in the 2024 and 2025 editions of the tournament – and he felt like it would be a tournament that would do more harm than good for his confidence.
After missing out on the Masters last year, Fox returns looking to fall back into the form that saw him start the season with four top 25-finishes – including a T7 at the Genesis Invitational.
Fox has played reasonably well at Augusta in previous visits, with a top 40 finish in 2024 and a top 30 finish in 2023.
“[I’m] pretty excited to be back this year ... and getting to soak in that whole experience. I think as a golf tournament, the feel of it stands above the rest,” he said.
“I just think it’s more how they do it. Like, it’s very old school with the no phones and all the little rules that I’m sure everyone that’s followed the Masters has read up about. The no running, and you can put your seat anywhere and you can just sit there and it’s just a very different crowd than what we get every other week on tour.
“Obviously playing in the UK’s a bit different than playing in the US and the crowds over there are great, but there’s just something about the Masters crowd and the Masters experience that’s just amazing.”
While he wasn’t in last year’s field, Fox estimated he watched most of the tournament, which was ultimately won by Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, to complete his career grand slam.
Asked if he learnt anything about how to approach certain parts of the course by watching the tournament, and how others played certain shots, Fox said there was only one real way to learn the intricacies of Augusta.
“Maybe not from watching it, but definitely from playing it. It’s kind of a funny experience playing there because there’s so many little intricacies to it that when you play it, it doesn’t change much at all year to year.
“Like, maybe they redo a green or two, or sneak another tee box in, they don’t really tell you what they’re doing, but for the most part, it’s the same golf course every year,” he said.
“But every time you play it, you feel like you learn something new and go, ‘well I don’t want to be there’, ‘actually that’s a pretty good miss to that pin’, ‘that’s not too bad’.
“There’s just so much of that and I think no matter how many times you play it, you’re always going to learn something about the golf course.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.