After being a bit wayward off the tee last week, Fox again missed more fairways than he found in his opening round, with his driving accuracy around 36%.
But he continued to play well between tee and green, finding 13 of 18 greens in regulation.
The round got off to an eventful start for Fox, who carded a par, bogey and birdie in his first three holes. He shored things up with nothing but pars through the next five holes, before a three-putt bogey on the ninth saw him sitting one-over at the turn.
Hitting into the water on the par-four 12th led him to a double bogey, before dropping shots on the 14th and 16th.
He did finish with a birdie on 18, but at four-over he sat toward the bottom of the leaderboard and with plenty of work to do.
Ranked at No 34 coming in, Fox needs to finish in a two-way tie for 29th to earn a place in the top 30 and move into next week’s Tour Championship at a minimum.
Though it’s more likely he will need a result better than that, with that number being the calculation should current No 30 Lucas Glover (five-over in round one) finish with last-place points.
“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,” Fox told the Herald before the tournament.
For the second week in a row, the field had one fewer player than anticipated.
At last week’s St Jude Championship in Memphis, which was limited to the top 70, Rory McIlroy opted not to play as it wouldn’t hurt his chances of appearing in the Tour Championship.
This week, Sepp Straka - currently ranked at No 8 on the FedEx Cup leaderboard - withdrew due to a private family matter.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
