Ryan Fox looking to consolidate position in hunt for full-time PGA Tour card at 3M Open as end-of-year schedule remains up in the air

Ryan Fox finished in a tie for 52nd at the Open Championship last week. Photo / Getty Images

Over the next two weeks, Ryan Fox will get a good idea how the remainder of his year will unfold.

The Kiwi golfer is on the brink of a major career achievement, with a full-time PGA Tour card within his reach.

His campaign so far has seen him check off a number of milestones; first earning 12 non-member starts on the Tour after a stellar 2022 season, capitalising on those to earn a special temporary membership, allowing him to accumulate FedEx Cup points and accept unlimited sponsor invitations to PGA Tour events.

Now, the next target is a full-time membership for 2024, which requires him to finish the season among the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings.

Going into the 3M Open in Minnesota this week, Fox sits 113th in the standings with 351 points. In previous seasons, that would be a relatively comfortable position to sit in with just two events left before the FedEx Cup playoffs. However, a new wrinkle in the 2023 schedule means he goes into the end of the year on more uncertain footing.

Players who finish 70th or better in the FedEx Cup playoffs and points list through the 2023 season earn their cards for 2024. But as a new addition this year, players ranked 51 or worse carry their regular-season points over into the fall season and can continue accumulating them throughout those events to finalise their eligibility for the 2024 season.

As it stands, Fox plans to play in this week’s 3M Open and the Wyndham Championship next week as he looks to consolidate his position, with his results over those two events dictating how the rest of his year shapes up.

“In any other year, right now with two events to go, I’d have enough points to have kept the card for the end of the year, but there are seven events now in the fall series that will count towards keeping your card,” Fox explained.

“I need a few more points under the belt to make sure of that. It’s nice to get a bit more experience to play out here and there are some pretty cool places we can go on the fall series; I think one’s in Japan, Mexico, Bermuda and a couple back in the States as well.

“So, the schedule looks like it could be all over the world at the end of the year, but it kind of depends on how these two weeks go and, if I play well in the next couple of weeks I could lock up that PGA Tour card for next year pretty quickly.”

Fox plans to return to Europe at some point over the end of the season, with a top-10 finish on the DP World Tour in Europe also being a qualification pathway to a PGA Tour card for the 2024 season. Sitting outside the top 40, he would need some strong results, and the extent of how much golf he will play in Europe is all reliant on whether he will need to play much of the PGA fall series.

Ahead of this week’s tournament in Minnesota, Fox was looking for a bit more consistency after riding a rollercoaster in his performance at the Open Championship in Liverpool, England, last week where he finished in a tie for 52nd at four-over.

After a seven-over opening round, Fox rebounded with a four-under second, barely surviving the cut before starting the weekend in solid form with a two-under effort. However, the weather took a turn on the final day and he battled through to three-over.

Many of the top players won’t feature in at the 3M Open this week, and the course at TPC Twin Cities shapes as one that could complement Fox’s long driving and solid putting should he strike the ball well.

“You’ve definitely got some bigger targets and no pot bunkers as well which is quite nice,” Fox said of the course.

“It feels like a golf course if you play well, you can definitely put a score together, but it’s also going to be one if you have a few bad shots there’s a fair bit of trouble around.

“The scoring could spread out pretty quickly this week. If you’re on, you can definitely score; if you’re off you might be dropping a few.”