PGA Tour playoffs: Ryan Fox falls further back in BMW Championship

Ryan Fox’s hopes of a maiden appearance in the PGA Tour Championship are starting to slip away.

The Kiwi golfer fell further off the pace after the second round of the BMW Championship this morning, with a three-over-par 73 moving him to seven-over for the tournament.

That has him in a tie for 43rd at the halfway point of the event limited to the top 50 players in the FedEx Cup rankings. He is 21 shots back from leader Robert MacIntyre, who made a blistering start to the tournament at Caves Valley Golf Club in Maryland to be 14-under and holding a five-shot lead heading into the weekend.

Fox was ranked at No 34 on the FedEx Cup leaderboard before the tournament, which meant he had some work to do to earn a spot in next week’s Tour Championship, which is limited to the top 30.

Ryan Fox carded a three-over 73 second round at the BMW Championship. Photo / AFP

Fox said achieving that would simply be the icing on the cake in an impressive season to date, as a top-50 finish means he can play in every tournament on the Tour next year.

His second round got off to a perfect start as he birdied the par-four first. However, he gave that shot back to the course two holes later.

After a bogey and a birdie on the sixth and seventh holes, a double bogey on the eighth saw him two-over at the turn.

He started the back nine the same way he started the front to get a shot back, but a double bogey on the par-three 17th meant he dropped another two shots.

Fox only hit three of 14 fairways off the tee in the second round, but is among the top 15 in the field through two rounds for greens in regulation at 67%.

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