PGA Tour winner Ryan Fox comes from a family of champions in New Zealand
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Ryan Fox, who broke through for his first PGA Tour win at the Myrtle Beach Classic on Sunday, comes from a line of sporting champions in his native New Zealand.
Fox's father and sometime caddie, Grant Fox, was a leading rugby player who played 46 times for New Zealand's All Blacks and is fourth on the career scoring list with 645 points.
Advertisement
Grant Fox was a member of the New Zealand team that won the first Rugby World Cup in 1987. He scored 126 points in that tournament, which is still a record for an individual at a World Cup.
Ryan Fox's maternal grandfather was Merv Wallace, a captain and later coach of the New Zealand cricket team. Wallace coached the team that achieved New Zealand's first test match victory, over the West Indies in 1956.
Grant Fox has spoken about the experience of following Ryan's performances at a distance, often in the small hours of the morning in New Zealand because of time zone differences.
'If he's at the pointy end of the field and there's a chance he's going to get (television) coverage, we're up,' Grant Fox said in a 2022 interview. 'I'm getting older now and it's getting harder to recover from that.
Advertisement
'But there's live scoring and my wife follows it religiously. The phone's by the bed at night.'
On Sunday, Ryan Fox was in the clubhouse at 15 under after a final-round 66 and got into a playoff after Mackenzie Hughes bogeyed the 18th. Fox chipped in for birdie on the first playoff hole to win and secure a spot in the PGA Championship.
Grant Fox said he was delighted to see his son, now 38, following his own sporting dream.
'All you want for your kids is for them to be happy and healthy and chasing their dream,' Grant Fox said. 'It doesn't matter how old they are you still want them to be doing that and Ryan's doing it.
'I love the fact that he's excelling in a sport different from mine.'
Fox is the ninth New Zealander to win on the PGA Tour.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
26 minutes ago
- Fox News
Scottie Scheffler 'forming himself into' becoming the next Tiger Woods, former World No 1 says
Scottie Scheffler is in a class of his own. The World No. 1 golfer is the heavy favorite to win this weekend's U.S. Open. In fact, he has the lowest odds of anybody in a major since Tiger Woods at the 2009 PGA Championship (it remains the only time Woods lost a 54-hole lead in a major). Scheffler is the only other player to be the No. 1-ranked player in the world for more than 100 consecutive weeks. Of course, Woods holds the top-two longest stretches of 281 and 264, so Scheffler has a long way to go. But if anyone in the game of golf is going to draw comparisons to the 15-time major winner among pro golfers, it's Scheffler. "Everyone's looking at Scottie right now and how consistent he is. When he doesn't win, he's in the top five. That's very difficult to do," Jason Day, a former World No. 1, said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. Scheffler had one of the greatest seasons in PGA history last year with eight wins, including the Masters and Olympics, making an all-time record $54 million in prize money - if 2024 Scottie Scheffler were its own player, it'd be the 14th-largest career earnings ever, and he's already in second place, behind Woods. He's followed that up with three wins this year, including his third major in the PGA Championship. In 12 events played, he has nine top 10s and has yet to finish outside the top 20. Day said Woods "was a different beast." But we are "potentially, for sure" "seeing someone build himself into the next Tiger." "I know how dominant Tiger was back in the day when I first started playing, so I'm not going to say anything in terms of how far Scottie's got to go and what he has to do in his career, but we're starting to see Scottie forming himself into potential greatness and one of the best of all time," Day said. "Let's just sit back and watch it, he's great. And priorities change. You have kids, other business interests, injuries, a lot of things can happen in your life. But he seems like he's very balanced from when he's on and off the course. He's a competitive guy, he loves competing, and you can see it when he plays golf." At one point, it looked like Day would do what Scheffler is doing now. At a point, he kind of was. In 17 events from July 26, 2015, to May 15 the following year, Day won seven of those, including his lone major in the PGA Championship. He won four of his final seven starts of the 2015 season and won three of his first 10. Since then, injuries have taken a toll on Day, who is currently ranked 39th and has just two wins since 2016. He's found his form recently with some better finishes amid grinding through his injuries. Does he look at Scheffler and get jealous? "The easy answer is you can't be jealous because you're not in that position," he said. "If you put yourself in that position where you can win all the time, then it's easy to put yourself there. But I was talking to Tiger one time, talking about getting inside the top 50, and he goes, 'I have an idea for you. Play better.' You can be jealous if you're seeing someone else succeed if you're not putting in the work. But if you're putting in the work, some guys are just better than you. But if you're sitting back saying, 'That should be me,' and not putting in the work, then you've got to re-evaluate things in your life." Day will be at Oakmont this weekend, aiming to end that 10-year major drought. He catered his home to the viral Oakmont conditions, but he's also feeling pretty good. "Being No. 1 in the world, I knew how hard it was to get there, the work and effort and distractions that came with it. It's hard to sit there and say injuries have taken me out of some momentum, but a career is very long. I'm trying to get these recent injuries behind me, and if I can have some healthy years and hit the ball hard, focus on what I need to do, hopefully I'll give myself a chance to challenge some of the best in the world." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
US Open tee time awaits Docherty less than a month after horrific car accident
OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — What Alistair Docherty thought was smoke was really the powder bursting out of the freshly deployed airbag. There was no mistaking the blood and glass covering everything in the wrecked white minivan. Docherty was driving May 20 when he got T-boned in an intersection, two days before the Korn Ferry's Visit Knoxville Open. On June 2, the 31-year-old, who missed his PGA Tour card by two spots at the end of last season, qualified for the U.S. Open. At 6:45 a.m. Thursday, Docherty will tee off at Oakmont. It's no stretch to say he's happy to be here, but Docherty wants more than just a good memory to close out this wild three weeks. 'It's not a miracle,' Docherty said after wrapping up a practice round that hardly looked possible less than a month ago, as he was tangled in the blood and glass. 'I'm very thankful. But it's definitely where I believe I'm supposed to be. Everything works out for a reason. I'm just trying to take advantage.' The pictures tell the story best. One is of the passenger's side of the minivan, sitting in the grass near the intersection, crumpled almost beyond recognition after getting slammed by an SUV that ran a red light. Another is Docherty lying in a hospital bed, lips pierced, eyes barely open, wearing a hospital gown draped over part of his neck collar. 'My car spun around a few times. I felt glass and everything come at me,' Docherty said. 'I opened my eyes and thought I saw smoke. I jumped out of the car as quickly as possible. It ended up being the stuff coming out of the airbag. I walked around a little dazed, and I was covered in blood and glass.' At the hospital, doctors and nurses were able to clean the glass off his body — no major damage there. The scans came back clean — nothing broken, either. Docherty said his shoulder and legs took the brunt of the crash. Constant work with the physical therapist allowed him to set his sites on June 2 at Duke University Golf Club. He shot 72-64 in the 36-hole qualifier to earn one of seven spots available there. The third part of that photo essay is him holding his invitation to play in the U.S. Open this week. Docherty knows he's lucky to be here but he's aiming for more — knowing a strong performance in this, his first major, could result in his second life-changing moment in a month. 'This is a great test to see where my game is at right now,' he said. 'If you show up thinking 'I don't have a chance here,' then you're done. so, I believe I have a chance to play my best here and see where it puts me.' ___ AP golf:
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
What's it like to be an amateur golfer at one of the sport's greatest events?
Ask any golf fan about their sporting dream and you can almost guarantee that it's teeing off on the first hole of Augusta National at the Masters. As he finalizes his preparations for this week's US Open, that's the dream self-described 'golf fanatic' Justin Hastings realized back in April when he made his major championship debut at just 21 years of age. A monumental day in any golfer's career, Hastings' maiden Masters appearance was made all the more special by the fact that he did so as an amateur, just one of five invited to compete at this year's tournament. Having claimed the spoils at the Latin America Amateur Championship earlier this year, the San Diego State student secured himself a spot to compete at the world's most famous course. Hastings' victory at the Pilar Golf Club in Buenos Aires, Argentina in January also earned him a spot at this year's US Open at Oakmont Country Club, where he will be bidding to again emerge top of the amateur leaderboard as he did at Augusta. The sport's biggest names all descend upon the hallowed grounds of Augusta National every April, each with the goal of etching their name into the record books and claiming the game's most coveted prize: the green jacket. Hastings says he 'learned so much' from competing at the Masters and enters the US Open with more belief in his game than ever before. But how does an amateur deal with the intense media spotlight, having to play alongside legends of the sport and also navigate one of the toughest courses on earth all at the same time? 'The key might sound simple,' an assured Hastings recently told CNN Sports. 'You just need to focus on your own game, control what you can control and the score will look after itself.' Despite the confident sounding answer, the collegiate athlete also admitted that it took time for him to follow his own advice. Arriving at Augusta at the start of Masters week, that first turn down the picturesque Magnolia Lane brought up a host of evocative childhood memories for the 21-year-old. Playing golf since the age of eight, the obsession with the Masters runs deep for Hastings, who revealed that he was so enamored by the event from an early age that he used to fake being sick on the morning of the opening round in an attempt to get the day off school. 'The Masters was always the tournament for me. It's just on a different level,' Hastings said. 'I really felt that way even more as a kid. So, every time Masters Thursday rolled around, I happened to be sick so I could stay at home in front of the television. 'My parents finally caught on after two or three years and it then just became a thing in my household that Masters Thursday was going to be a family holiday.' It was this love of the Masters which resulted in a bout of nerves Hastings had never previously felt on a golf course as he teed off for his opening practice round on the Tuesday. 'All that kept going through my mind was to not hit anyone,' Hastings said. 'The jitters were certainly there that first day, but I guess that just goes to show how special the entire event and the pageantry which surrounds it is.' Those practice round nerves, however, were a key part to the amateur's strong display during the real thing. Shooting a respectable 76 in the first round, Hastings produced an impressive 72 on the Friday before ultimately just missing out on the cut by two strokes. 'Having felt those nerves earlier in the week, I knew what to expect by the time Thursday rolled around and it gave me a reference point for how to deal with and manage them,' he said. Averaging 2.3 million viewers for the first round alone and attracting crowds of over 10,000 people in person each day, the Masters dwarfed the Caymanian's previous tournament outings by some distance in terms of fanfare. 'It was unlike anything I've ever dealt with before. It was quite surreal at stages to be honest,' Hastings said. 'At the same time though, it was great motivation. I want to be playing in front of these big crowds every week, that's part of the dream and you have to embrace it.' One could be forgiven for thinking that amateurs competing at the Masters might be an afterthought for tournament organizers who are trying to cater to the needs of golf's household names. But this couldn't be further from the truth, according to Hastings, who said he was made to 'feel like royalty' by everyone at Augusta. 'They've got such a deep respect for you. Maybe not in the same way they think of a big name competing for the green jacket, but they appreciate how far you've come as an amateur to be able to qualify for a professional tournament of such stature,' he said. 'I really felt like I was put up on a pedestal for the time I was at Augusta. From the dinner they put on Tuesday night for the amateur qualifiers to the access they gave us to the former champions, I can't thank them enough.' Rubbing shoulders with greats of the game, Hastings added that his expectations were surpassed and then some: 'It was a once in a lifetime experience and one I'll never forget. I even got the chance to play nine holes with (2018 Masters winner) Patrick Reed. 'We talked a lot and his advice to me was to just play my own game. He had the same situation where he had played tour events as an amateur. 'He told me not to try to copy what I saw the professionals doing, that my game was what got me here so to stick to what I know best.' Paired off with another former champion in Dustin Johnson and veteran Canadian Nick Taylor for the first and second rounds, Hastings got further opportunity to seek some sage wisdom. Perhaps his favorite moment of the week at Augusta though was the chance to lodge at the Crow's Nest, one of the golf club's most revered amenities. 'It was a real 'pinch me' moment. If only the walls could talk in that place. The history and prestige around it is incredible,' Hastings said. 'I find it very cool that now I'm able to add my name to the list and be alongside some of golf's greats who have also stayed there.' Amid this major mayhem, the rigors of everyday student life have managed to keep Hastings' feet planted firmly on the ground. Leading up to the Masters, the San Diego State student was tasked with completing his end-of-degree final exams. 'Some days, it can be mentally tough to keep going, but at this level, it's what you have to do,' said Hastings. 'Getting up at 6 a.m. to make it to the gym before class and then spending hours after study practicing until the sun goes down – you do those things because you love the grind and the sport.' Having graduated college and with the Masters experience behind him, Hastings' attention now turns this weekend's US Open at Pennsylvania's Oakmont Country Club, for which he has also qualified. The third of golf's four major championships, the tournament represents a chance for the amateur to apply his Masters learnings and compete on the biggest of stages once more. 'I learned so much at the Masters, but the biggest takeaway for me was that it reinforced my self-belief and that I have the quality to go there and hang with these big names,' Hastings said. 'I definitely felt the pressure of trying to make the cut on the back nine of the Friday and feel like I performed well to give myself a shot. 'So I'm heading into the US Open trying to take all that confidence and remember that my game is already solid enough to have gotten me to this point. I need to have the conviction that I'm going to succeed.' In a similar vein to Augusta, Oakmont is famed as being one of the hardest courses, producing few low scores. But this is a challenge that the 21-year-old is relishing: 'My social media algorithm is filled with videos of people saying how tough the rough is to deal with and how the winning score will be over par. 'That just gets me excited to go out there and prove that I can hang with the best in the world on such a difficult course.' Ahead of the US Open, Hastings actually traveled with his caddy to Oakmont to play two practice rounds and familiarize himself with the intricacies of the course. He hopes that the added effort – along with his Augusta experiences – can propel him past the cut line on this occasion, but at the same time Hastings isn't gunning for any exact spot on the leaderboard. 'I try not to set position goals and just focus on what I can control,' he said. 'If you focus too much on other players and chasing down their scores, that's when you lose your own focus on the basics of your game.' 'I'm going there full of confidence and not ruling anything out,' Hastings added. 'I'm excited to show what I can do and to see where I end up.'
