RBC Canadian Open: Ryan Fox shares lead after two rounds in quest for maiden PGA Tour win

Ryan Fox will head into the weekend's play with a share of the lead. Photo / Getty Images

During the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic in early May, Scottish golfer Robert MacIntyre noted how nice it was to play alongside Kiwi counterpart Ryan Fox.

The pair earned PGA Tour cards through their performances on the DP World Tour last year and have been adjusting to the new environment on the U.S.-based tour.

“It’s a completely different lifestyle in the U.S., and good or bad, some people love it, some people hate it. It’s just a different culture, a different style of life,” MacIntyre said.

“It’s good to have people in the same boat as you. I’ve struggled out here with the lifestyle. I think the majority of the European guys have struggled since coming out here. It’s been so different. But it’s good to have guys like playing with Foxy there that really couldn’t care less about the golf when we were going around there. We were just having fun chatting. Out here I feel like there’s less - it’s work; we don’t need to chat; no one needs to chat to you. But out there with Foxy it felt like you were just playing golf with a mate.”

Tomorrow, the pair will play together again, jostling for the lead at the RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ontario.

Fox and MacIntyre hold a share of the lead at 10-under-par through two rounds of the tournament, with Fox making a strong charge with a second-round 64 (six-under) to jump five places on the leaderboard and join MacIntyre at the top; the Scotsman moving up two places himself.

“I’ve known Bob since he got on tour a few years ago,” Fox said. “He’s a great kid. We get along really well, played together a bunch of times in Europe. played together the first two days at Myrtle Beach this year, [and] We both went pretty well there.

“Hopefully, we can have a bit of fun tomorrow and feed off each other and be in that final group again on Sunday [Monday NZT].”

Fox made a blistering start to his second round, with a birdie on his first hole of the day - the par-four 10th - before sitting at six-under for the round through 14 holes. He did drop a shot on the par-three sixth, his 15th hole of the day, but got that back on the par-four ninth with a perfect putt from about 13ft.

For Fox, it was a case of everything clicking on the golf course.

“I drove it great, I hit my irons really good, and had a few more putts drop today it could have been really silly, but I still had a lot of good putts. If you would have given me 64 to start the day I certainly would have taken [it],” Fox said.

This year has been a tough one for the world number 63 but since his tied 38th finish at the Masters, he said he feels he has turned a corner.

“The Masters was the first week I kind of felt like I had some control again. Took a while to kind of put the scores together, but [I’ve] certainly been feeling a lot better about my golf game since then.”

Fox and MacIntyre are two shots ahead of the chasing pack, which includes Joel Dahmen, whose bogey-free round of 65 shot him up the leaderboard at eight-under.