“The [DP World] Tour’s maybe changed up a little bit since ‘23, my last full year over here, but there’s still a core group of guys that I know really well, both caddies and players, and I know a lot of the staff really well,” he told the Herald.
“It almost feels like a reunion a little bit. I haven’t seen a bunch of those guys for probably six months - since I played Dubai at the start of the year - so it’s been nice to catch up with everyone and have a bit of a chat and stuff like that.
“It feels like I’ve had really long days without necessarily accomplishing much, because every time I walk past someone, I end up chatting to them for five minutes, and I like that. It’s been a lot of fun.
“I’ve probably got another day of it tomorrow before trying to flick into tournament mode properly on Thursday.”
Fox is one of two Kiwis in the field this week, alongside Daniel Hillier, and comes in off a two-week break from tournaments. That short lay-off came after a stretch in which he played nine tournaments in 10 weeks.
While he enjoyed some time off, Fox took the opportunity to travel to Europe early, first visiting Northern Ireland, where he played Royal Portrush – the site of next week’s Open Championship – and was able to be a tourist with his wife and daughters, before travelling north-east to North Berwick.
Adding to Portrush, Fox also spent time playing top Scottish links courses North Berwick, Muirfield and The Renaissance Club, in preparation for the next couple of weeks.
Fox has had plenty of success in Europe in the past, though for the most part, it has eluded him at The Renaissance Club. Since the course became the home of the Scottish Open in 2019, he has had two missed cuts and his T12 finish in 2023 is his only top-40 finish over that stretch.
It’s a run of form Fox is well aware of.
“I haven’t had great results from Renaissance, to be honest. I’ve had a couple of decent results in the Scottish Open outside of here, so I’d like to change that up.
“It’s a golf course that I feel like I can play well around, but I just haven’t put it all together yet, so we’ll see. The golf game’s still in pretty reasonable shape. Links golf can be a bit funny as well; if you get on the wrong side of the draw, you can be out of the tournament pretty quickly.
“Forecast-wise, it looks like none of that’s going to happen this week, but we are in Scotland and we’ve still got a couple of days before we tee off, so you never know what can happen over here.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
