After confirming his place in the championship rounds at the US Open, Ryan Fox had the same thing to say about the Oakmont Country Club as several of his competitors.
“Oakmont is hard,” he posted on social media.
And playing in the weekend rounds at a major for his 10thstraight appearance across golf’s top four tournaments, Fox fought with the famed course near Pittsburgh.
The Kiwi carded a three-over-par 73 in his third round to fall to eight-over for the tournament. That saw Fox in a tie for 39th and heading into the final round 12 shots behind the leaders.
American Sam Burns led the field by one shot at four-under-par, from compatriot J.J. Spaun and Australian veteran Adam Scott.
Burns and Fox are the only players in the field not to have a three-putt through three rounds of the tournament, per the broadcast.
With a morning tee time and paired with a familiar face in Robert MacIntyre of Scotland, Fox’s fight with the course began early.
After a couple of pars, the course landed the first blow against the 38-year-old, who couldn’t quite scramble away after sending his drive into the Church Pews bunker and carded a double bogey.
With birdies on the fourth, fifth and sixth holes – par-five, par-four and par-three respectively – Fox found himself at one-under-par for the round and threatening to break well inside the top 20.
However, wayward drives on the seventh and ninth holes saw Fox battling with the rough, giving shots back to the course with a bogey and another double bogey to sit two-over at the turn.
The back nine was less eventful on the scorecard for Fox, who parred all but the par-four 15th, where he paid for sending his second shot into the backside green bunker. He left himself a look at par with about a 3m putt, but the greens at Oakmont have been tricky all week and he wasn’t able to avoid dropping a shot.
It was the second round in a row that Fox had posted a 73, but with players struggling to go under par this week, there remains plenty of movement to be seen on the leaderboard as the final round plays out tomorrow.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
