New Zealand star Ryan Fox has arrived in Brisbane refreshed and determined to secure his first win on Australian soil in six years.
Fox, 38, has had a memorable year, winning twice on the PGA Tour at the Canadian Open and the Myrtle Beach Classic.
“It’s hard to beat the year I had this year,” Fox said ahead of the Australian PGA Championship, which starts at Royal Queensland on Thursday.
“Other than maybe making the (PGA) Tour Championship, I ticked every box that I wanted to tick.”
However, a win on his return to RQ this week, or at next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, would be a nice way to finish the calendar year.
“I’ve always really enjoyed coming back to Aussie and playing,” said Fox, whose most recent win in Australia was in 2019 at the World Super 6 in Perth.
“(The PGA Tour of Australasia) is the first tour I played when I turned pro and I would’ve loved to come back last year but injury kept me out of coming back.
“This year it fitted in perfectly. I’ve had a chance to have a really nice break but … I don’t want to take three months off golf and try to go back into early next year and have to find it again.
“And we’re playing two great golf courses the next two weeks with great fields.
“I really wanted to be a part of it. It was a no-brainer for me.”
Fox has spent the past eight weeks away from tournaments, and was appreciative of the chance to go home to New Zealand from his US base to “be a dad” and “be normal”.
“I tried to not touch my golf clubs the first month, which was really nice, and then I’ve done quite a bit of work in the last month, both body-wise and golf-wise,” he said.
“I’ve done a fair bit of work on my game and it’s feeling good in practice, but we’ll see what the tournament rust is going to be like over the next week.”
Fox’s goals for 2026 include playing in the Presidents Cup for the first time as part of the International team taking on the USA in September at the Medinah Country Club.
“The big one is to be on (the International) team in September for next year,” he said.
“That’s something I feel like I’ve missed out on the last couple of years and I’m in a good place.”
Fox said he had already chatted this week with International team captain Geoff Ogilvy, who is also in the field at Royal Queensland.
“He’s excited and it feels like we’ve got a good base of a team. A lot of guys are starting to play pretty well and there’s going to be some good competition for spots,” Fox said.
Originally published as Kiwi golf star Ryan Fox hunting for first Australian title since 2019 after stellar year
