Ryan Fox headed to Oak Hill before the sun had risen to get breakfast before getting stretched in preparation for the opening round of the PGA Championship.
Just his bad luck, Fox was already at the course when he received a text that the start was delayed by frost, pushing his tee time back nearly two hours.
But that’s the way it has gone lately for the Kiwi.
He felt sick on the weekend at the Masters, tried to play at Hilton Head and withdrew after three holes to go home. Turns out he had pneumonia, which kept him home for two weeks trying to recover.
“As soon as I got over that, our daughter was born, which was just over two weeks ago now,” Fox said. “So I had a few sleepless nights and not a lot of practice.”
It doesn’t stop there.
One day he tried to practice, Auckland, New Zealand, flooded for the third time this year. He was stuck for four hours in traffic.
“It wasn’t quite the ideal preparation for a major, but I was kind of hoping the fact I needed a break after a busy start to the year and being mentally fresh would have been important this week,” he said.
It seemed to work out OK. Fox, No. 41 in the world ranking, opened with a 68 that was good enough to leave him tied for sixth.
Fox mixed four birdies with two bogeys in his impressive opening round to put his name alongside the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland inside the top 10.
“There was some pretty scruffy iron shots in there, and my short game saved me. I rode a pretty hot putter today,” Fox said.
“For the most part, when I was in trouble today, I was generally in trouble in the right place and I managed to get it up and down.”
Fox added that all his issues in the build-up may have had a positive effect though.
“The golf game was pretty good a month ago, it can't have disappeared that far... pneumonia was almost a benefit. I got home and knew I could do nothing and just relax. Coming in fresh has been pretty good so far,” he said.
"I generally like playing the week before a major. And I've always been, after a decent break, always been a little rusty coming back...but I also thought this is the kind of golf course where you don't need to shoot 20-under. If you can shoot around par this week, you're going to be there or thereabouts.
“So, I kind of had that in the back of my head. If you make bogeys, it doesn't really matter, just limit your mistakes. I managed to hit a few good shots there and ride a really hot putter, and I'm standing here talking to you guys now.
"So it's not bad."
- Additional reporting by the Associated Press
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