Fox will take some catching at Classic
Not to jinx him, but New Zealander looks out of reach of chasing pack
The DP World Tour looks set to crown its first wire-to-wire winner of the 2022 season and cap a fine four weeks in the UAE.
Not to jinx the man, but New Zealand’s Ryan Fox looks out of reach of the chasing pack after a third scintillating round at Al Hamra Golf Club put him six strokes ahead at the UAE Swing-closing Ras Al Khaimah Classic yesterday, signing for a 65 that had more red than the crowd at a Manchester United v Liverpool clash.
Kiwi Fox popped in nine birdies — offset by two bogeys — to add to the 16 he had already racked up over the previous two days and is now 18 holes away from his second DP World Tour crown. “My head’s in a pretty good place,” Fox said. “Ask me that on the first tee tomorrow and I might have a slightly different answer but I felt like I had really good control over the ball today, only hit a couple of bad shots and holed some putts as well.
“So I’ve put myself exactly where I want to be and it’s all on me tomorrow, someone’s going to have to do something really low or I’m going to have to play poorly so hopefully I can keep playing how I’ve played in the past few days and put it out of reach. “I think I’ve made six bogeys all week and bounced back every time, so I don’t know why. It’s just felt like one of those weeks where every part of my game has just worked and when I’ve hit a bad shot I haven’t let it get to me too much.”
Fox’s seven-under 65 yesterday took him to 19-under for the tournament, with his closest challengers way back on 13-under and seemingly out of reach.