Believe Ryan Fox when he says his PGA Championship preparation has been less than ideal - battling a bout of pneumonia, taking four weeks away from the game and in the last 10 days he's welcomed his second child.
But this enforced break has given him the mental refresh he so badly needed.
"I wasn't hating the game, but I just didn't quite have it.
"That's usually a sign for me that I need a break, that I'm at the end of my tether and anyone who's played golf will know that feeling to be honest and most sports people will go through something like that a couple of times a year,” said Fox.
Hot off his Masters debut you would have thought Fox was in form and having the time of his life - wrong.
While he was competing in the RBC Heritage PGA Tour tournament in April, the Kiwi wasn't in a battle for the lead, he was in a battle with himself.
"I literally had nothing left," said Fox
"I just had no energy left. I was walking around thinking 'I can't be out here, I just don't have it in me to be out there'."
Fox had to withdraw from the event.
"I remember waking up on Friday morning after I pulled out and I was ready to get on a flight home and I was thankful I wasn't playing golf that morning. I've never had a feeling like that."
Fox said he barely made it home to New Zealand but it's there where he was told he had pneumonia.
Since returning home Fox has played little golf, he's also been busy with the arrival of his second child.
"Generally, I like to play the week before a major but there was no way I was leaving a three-day old - it's pretty hard leaving a 10-day-old to be honest.
"I'm a lot more underdone going into a PGA than I probably have been in any major I’ve played but that was just the nature of the circumstances.
"Having a break was really nice and being fresh mentally helps."
Fox has played nine holes already at Oakhill Country Club.
"Consensus of the guys I talked to was it's closer to your US Open set up than it is traditional PGA.
"There’s some serious length in some of the holes out there, if you miss the fairway, it is unpleasant most of the time and if you miss the greens and it's bad there's some nasty rough around the greens.
"I don't know if anyone is going to beat this golf course. It's going to be try not to get beaten up by this golf course."
Fellow Kiwi Steven Alker will also be at Oakhill. The 51-year-old is set to make his debut at the PGA Championship after qualifying by winning the PGA Champions Tour outright in 2022.
"This will be a nice test to see where my game is at," said Alker.
"I don't have any expectations but there is one goal and that's to play my game - play 'the Steve Alker golf' I've been playing for the last 18 months."
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