Fox pleased with his strong finish

It says a lot about how far Ryan Fox has come this year at the pointy end of professional golf that there was a cool detachment, rather than any wild celebration, over his best performance at a major.

In fact, the Kiwi, 31, marked his career-best major finish yesterday at the US PGA Championship in St Louis, Missouri, by bolting straight for the airport to start his journey back to New Zealand for a well-deserved threeweek hiatus.

He also goes with the news that he is now 77th in the world rankings, a career-best.

Before boarding the plane to Houston he told Stuff that his sixunder finish at Bellerive Country Club, to finish in a four-way tie for 27th, and pocket US$82,000 (NZ$124,550) in prizemoney, had been satisfying, if a little frustrating around the what-might-havebeens.

‘‘The score was pretty satisfying, and if you had given it to me at the start of the day I probably would have taken it,’’ he said of his final-round 68 in which he made five birdies to go with three bogeys.

‘‘But I didn’t play fantastic. ‘‘I guess to probably not have my best stuff and shoot two-under in the last round of a major for my best finish, there are a lot of positives I can take from that.’’

If the in-form Kiwi pro takes anything out of his week in Missouri, it’s that he continues to prove he belongs in the company of the sport’s elite. And maybe that he’s chipping away at the edifice.