Fox’s back nine charge salvages opening round
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox has bounced back from a poor start to rescue his opening round at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, his final tune-up before next week’s US Masters.
The Kiwi was four-over par through the opening six holes and his tough run of form looked set to continue before he got his round back on track.
A resilient back nine featuring five birdies and just one bogey saw him pull a six-shot turnaround to shoot back up the leaderboard and into contention — sitting tied for eighth with a two-under 70 for the day.
Disaster struck early in Fox’s round, with his tee shot on the 359-metre par-four fifth pulled way left and out of bounds. It was a mark of mental fortitude that he was able to lay his third shot back onto the fairway, hit his fourth to just over four metres from the pin and then make a pressure putt to save bogey.
The sixth was just as much of a test of mentality as it was Fox’s golf, his drive again went left and into the trees and he was again forced to play back onto the fairway. After hitting his approach to the back of the green he almost made a magnificent par save as his chip rolled half a metre short of the hole, a regulation putt was made to take another tough bogey.
That completed a stretch of three consecutive bogeys and at that stage, Fox, at four-over, could have folded. But a birdie on the par five eighth hole would be the catalyst for a back nine charge after he hit a beautiful third approach shot just three metres from the hole and sunk the short putt.
Golf is as much about momentum and having your head in the right place as it is about your swing, and Fox looked a different beast on the back nine as stretches of bogeys were replaced by birdies and he clawed his way back into contention.
He went close to making an eagle on the 385-metre par-four 12th as he hit his second shot to less than a metre from the pin, once he tapped home the birdie putt it looked as though Fox had found his groove.
It was nearly a bogey-free back nine for Fox but it came unstuck on the 555-metre parfive 18th with a par putt from less than a foot away from the hole lipping out and the Kiwi having to settle for a bogey.
American Justin Lower leads the pack after carding a sixunder 66 to take the clubhouse lead, two shots ahead of compatriots Max Homa, Denny Mccarthy and Tyson Alexander who all carded four-under 68s.