PGA Tour playoffs: Ryan Fox creeps up leaderboard at St Jude Championship

Things are trending in the right direction for Ryan Fox.

In his PGA Tour playoff debut in Memphis this week, the Kiwi golfer continued to improve round by round to creep up the leaderboard.

Fox posted a two-under-par 68 in his third round of the St Jude Championship at TPC Southwind, signing off his first under-par card of the tournament.

The 38-year-old was on track for a great round at the turn, sitting four-under through nine holes, but found some trouble through the latter half.

Finishing at two-under for the round saw his total score improve to one-over, which had him sitting in a tie for 55th – an improvement of six places.

Importantly, it sets Fox up well to limit the damage to his FedEx Cup ranking as the field is trimmed to 50 players for next week’s BMW Championship.

Fox is in no danger of missing that tournament, going into Memphis ranked at No 32 in the FedEx Cup rankings.

However, the Tour Championship the following week sees the field cut to just 30 players and Fox is fighting to secure a spot in that tournament.

With the second round having to be completed earlier in the day on Sunday, the third round was played in groups of three rather than the tournament’s usual groups of two.

Playing with South African Erik van Rooyen and American Michael Kim, Fox made a strong start with a birdie on his second hole of the day, before adding an eagle and another birdie without dropping a shot through nine.

While he added another birdie on the back nine, that was offset by three bogeys.

Statistically, Fox was a big improver through the third round. He was ranked inside the top 10 in shots gained putting and top 20 in total shots gained.

He continued to be among the tournament’s longest hitters off the tee – ranked at No 3 for the tournament – but again he had some issues with finding fairways.

Englishman Tommy Fleetwood will go into the final round holding onto a one-shot lead at 14-under-par, from compatriot Justin Rose.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.