Ryan Fox’s US Open hopes might not be over just yet.
The Kiwi needs at least a third solo finish at the Canadian Open to move into the top 60 of the world rankings and secure a late spot in next week’s major at Oakmont.
He is making
Ryan Fox’s US Open bid alive after strong Canadian Open showing
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Ryan Fox plays a shot from a bunker on the seventh hole during the second round of the RBC Canadian Open at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. Photo / Getty Images
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“It’s obviously a golf course you can make a lot of birdies on. It’s going to require two more good scores on the weekend, so I’ve played it pretty aggressively so far for the first two days. Sort of no change there,” Fox said.
“Hit driver off the majority of tees and try to give yourself some short shots in. If you hit your wedges good, you can definitely make some birdies, and I’ve done that the first couple of days pretty well.”
Fox has recorded 13 birdies across the opening two days, more than leader Champ, which is a promising sign heading into the weekend, helped by his approach to the green play.
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“I generally like hard golf courses, but I will say, after playing Memorial last week, it was kind of nice to come here and see you’ve got a little bit of space. You still get penalised for bad shots, but if you’re a yard in the rough, you still feel like you’ve got a chance this week.
“I think the rain definitely impacted the scoring a lot. I thought, when we played Tuesday and Wednesday in the Pro-Am, it was starting to get firmer fast, and you had to think about it a little bit more. If you were in the rough, it was hard to get the ball close. It was hard to hit a few of the fairways with how firm the fairways are. Obviously with the rain softening it up, it became a little bit of target golf.
“Hopefully it does firm up over the weekend and play a little bit tougher. I think I definitely prefer that than a birdie fest, but I’ve made a few the first couple of rounds at least.”
Starting on the 10th hole, Fox was three-under after five holes when he birdied the 12th, 13th and 14th – all three putts from between 3m and 5m after great approaches – but came unstuck at the 15th hole after missing a short putt for par.
Another bogey followed at the 17th after finding the bunker off the tee, but his superb iron play led to a fourth birdie on his opening nine at the par five 18th – just one of two par fives on the course.
That began another run of three straight birdies as Fox made another four at the par-five first hole and also birdied the second hole to get to four-under for the day. A bogey at the third stopped his run but he sank another 4m putt at the par-three fourth to remain at four-under.
Fox briefly got to five-under with his eighth birdie of the day coming at the sixth hole, when his drive landed 35m short of the green, before dropping another shot at the seventh hole.
It will be the fifth straight tournament Fox has made the cut but a big name that won’t be joining him is Masters champion Rory McIlroy.
The Northern Irishman finished in 149th spot after an eight-over 78 that included a quadruple bogey eight on the fifth hole.
“Yeah, of course it concerns me,” McIlroy said when asked about his form heading into the US Open.
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“You don’t want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. Still I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t.
“Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee. Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now that isn’t. Yeah, that’s a concern going into next week.”
On the DP World Tour, Daniel Hillier sits in a share of 20th after his second round at the KLM Open in Amsterdam. Hillier carded a one-over 72 to be even par, eight off the lead. Fellow Kiwi Kazuma Kobori, eight-over, missed the cut.
