Ryan Fox moves into top 10 at Sanderson Farms Championship; Hillier continues strong form at Dunhill Links Championship

Ryan Fox sits in a tie for seventh with one round to play at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Photo / Getty Images

A late-round charge has lifted Ryan Fox inside the top 10 after three rounds of the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi, with four birdies in his last nine holes.

Fox shot four-under-par for the round, after a bogey on the par-four ninth cancelled out a birdie from two holes prior, and moved to 15-under for the tournament.

That saw him finish the round sitting in a tie for seventh, five shots off the lead in the hunt for his maiden PGA Tour win, and sets him up nicely for a strong result in the fall series event.

That’s the goal for Fox over the coming weeks as he looks to shore up his position in the FedEx Cup standings, with the top 125 maintaining the tour cards for 2025. Fox came into the Mississippi event in 109th, which would likely be a good enough spot for him to not drop beyond the 125 had he not taken part in the fall tournaments, but that wasn’t a risk he was willing to take.

“If I was a betting man, I’d say I’m almost safe, but I’m certainly not going to bet my career on it,” Fox told the Herald prior to the event in Mississippi.

“Just a couple of solid weeks in the next three or four weeks would lock up my card for next year. To be honest, there’s not a whole lot of difference between finishing 85 and 115 on the FedEx Cup now. The biggest thing is just making sure I finish inside the top 125.”

Fellow Kiwi Daniel Hillier has also continued his strong form this weekend, carding a two-under 70 in his third round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews in Scotland on the DP World Tour.

Hillier has been on fire this week, kicking things off with a blistering nine-under 63 first round, then a three-under second and now a two-under third.

Sitting at 14-under overall, Hillier sits in a tie for 13th but eight shots behind leader Tyrrell Hatton, who shot a remarkable 11-under 61 to move to the top of the leaderboard after three rounds.

“I definitely started off the week well and probably had the best round of golf I’ve had all year, which is nice, and then played solid at Carnoustie - [it] was pretty tough out there, a bit of wind to contend with - and today I just had a cold putter. It’s a bit unfortunate but [I] felt like I played well enough to shoot a pretty good score, and the putts just didn’t drop today, but hopefully I can save them for tomorrow,” Hillier said.

“You obviously try to win every tournament you come to, but looking at the near horizon, we’ve got Abu Dhabi and Dubai coming and I’m just outside the cut for those, so any good performance is going to help me try sneak into that top 70 for Abu Dhabi, and then [the] top 50 for Dubai, and obviously I’m in a pretty good spot to try [to] do that this week.”

Taranaki golfer Sam Jones has also been having a solid week at St Andrews. Jones sits in a tie for 29th at 11-under, shooting a five-under 67 in his third round; a bogey on the par-four 18th the only blemish on his scorecard, while Kazuma Kobori sits two shots further back in a tie for 58th.

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