There’s a freedom that comes with having nothing to lose.
As Ryan Fox heads into the BMW Championship in Maryland this week, it’s a notion he’s embracing in his bid to earn a place in the PGA Tour Championship next week.
Competing in Maryland this week sees the Kiwi golfer tick off the major goal he had set for himself at the start of the season of finishing in the top 50 on the FedEx Cup (PGA Tour) rankings.
Only the top 50 players on tour made the cut for this week’s tournament, with the 38-year-old currently ranked at No 34. Now, he’s looking to force his way into the top 30 to qualify for a spot in the climax of the PGA Tour season.
“I’m in a good place, in fact. Being in this event means I completely control my schedule for next year,” Fox told the Herald.
“I’ll be in all the signature events, which is probably the main goal at the start of the season ticked off.
“You want to be in that top 50, and that’s where you get to play all the big events. I’ve done that. Getting to play next week would be the icing on the cake.
“I can just go out, give it a crack and see what happens this week. If it doesn’t work, I get an extra week holiday, if not, I get to play in Atlanta next week, which will be an event that I’ve really wanted to play since turning professional.
“I’ve given myself a good chance this week.”
The minimum requirement for the Kiwi to have a chance of finishing in the top 30 is a two-way tie for 29th this week, with that calculation being based on the current No 30, American Lucas Glover, finishing last and other results going his way.
So, it’s understandable that Fox is not crunching the numbers to try and work out exactly what he needs to do before teeing off on Friday morning.
Instead, having to chase gives him the freedom to play aggressive golf and see what he can make happen.
“I’ve kind of got nothing to lose. I’m on the outside looking in. I need a decent week. No, I don’t know what the number will be, but I’d say if I finish top 10, I’d have a pretty damn good shot of getting in the 30 next week,” he said.
“That’s the goal - go out, try to make some birdies, try to hole some putts and see what happens.”
After a week where he struggled off the tee – finishing in a tie for 50th at the St Jude Championship in Memphis – Fox has been putting in plenty of work with coach Marcus Wheelhouse to try and find something on the range.
He was feeling better about his swing heading into the tournament at Caves Valley Golf Club, which he felt would be more forgiving off the tee, though he admitted he needed to “get it in play more”.
“It’s a fair bit wider, it’s a fair bit longer this week, so hopefully that helps out,” he said.
“It’s probably along the lines of what I expected in this part of the world. Like, it’s lots of really old trees and big trees, and it’s probably hillier than I expected. It’s a really cool golf course.
“It’s an absolute brute of a walk ... It’s a lot of up and down - potentially one of the hilliest golf courses I’ve ever played - and it’s certainly a golf course if you were playing socially, you’d want to be in a golf cart.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a war of attrition in that regard this week, but it’s a really fun golf course to play.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.