Texas hold ’em as Fox bounces back
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox 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 eleventh with a two-under 70 for the day.
Fox’s tee shot on the 392-yard parfour 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 on to the fairway, hit his fourth to just five yards from the pin and then make a pressure putt to save bogey.
The sixth was just as much a test of mentality, as Fox’s drive again went left and into the trees and he was forced to play back on to 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 yard short of the hole, then a regulation putt was made to take another tough bogey.
That completed a stretch of three consecutive bogeys and Fox, at fourover, could have folded. But a birdie on the par-five eighth was the catalyst for a back-nine charge after he hit a beautiful third approach shot just three yards from the hole and sunk the short putt.
Fox looked a different player 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 420-yard par-four 12th as he hit his second shot to less than a yard from the pin. Once he tapped home the birdie putt, Fox looked to have found his groove.
A nearly blemish-free back nine for Fox came unstuck on the 606-yard par-five 18th with a par putt from less than a foot away from the hole lipping out, having to settle for a bogey.
American Justin Lower leads the pack after carding a six-under 66 to take the clubhouse lead, two shots ahead of compatriots Max Homa, Denny McCarthy and Tyson Alexander who all carded four-under 68s.
Fox’s first-round recovery at San Antonio followed revelations this week that he was struggling with his form.
“Golf’s pretty hard at the moment,” Fox said before the Texas Open. “I’m just really struggling to score and there’s a few really bad shots creeping in, so it’s hard to keep the confidence levels up at times. I’ll start hitting some good shots and then one bad one comes out of nowhere and it dents the confidence again. I’m still working really hard at it, so I’m sure that’ll turn at some point.”
After a breakout year in 2023 saw him impress on the Europe-based DP World Tour and America’s PGA Tour, and ultimately land full membership on the latter, this year has not followed suit.
In seven events on the PGA Tour, he has made the cut four times, with a tie for 35th at the Cognizant Classic his best performance of the season.
“I’ve certainly made enough double [bogeys] and a couple of other big numbers and that’s hard to come back from,” the 37-year-old said.
“This game is a funny one. I always think you’re you two swings away from playing really well and you’re two swings away from playing really badly.”
With the Masters approaching after this week’s tournament in Texas, Fox was hopeful of a turnaround.
“I’d certainly like it to happen. I missed the cut by a fair bit here last year and walked away not feeling great about my game and ended up having a pretty good week at Augusta.
“Golf is a strange game like that. I certainly wouldn’t mind missing the cut this week if I went and played decent next week, but I’d certainly like to find something this week to take into Augusta. It has been a bit of a tough road the last couple of months and a good week would change that headspace pretty quickly.”