As the golfing world was thrown into chaos, Ryan Fox was asleep on a plane, blissfully unaware as it all unfolded.
When he woke, everything had changed, with the shock announcement of what’s being called a merger between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Investment Fund, which bankrolls the LIV Tour.
“I was on a plane back from Ohio, I’d missed a connecting flight. I was in the air and woke up, turned Wi-Fi on and had a bunch of messages and I’m still trying to figure out what actually went on,” Fox told 1News from his hotel in Los Angeles, having landed in preparation for this week’s US Open.
“It was a shock, I think, to everyone in golf. There was not even a whisper about it at the Memorial the week before, so the guys that did it obviously kept a very tight circle around them and did an amazing job of keeping it quiet.”
The world No.41 laid low after the announcement, taking a week off at home to see his new-born second daughter. He’s still largely in the dark about what it all means and how it will directly impact him. But he’s had dealings with one of the men heavily involved in the deal, businessman Jimmy Dunne.
“He seemed to be the instigator of what happened and I saw the outline of his interview last week and he loves golf, he’s definitely in there for the best interests of golf and so I trust his judgement in that regard, let’s put it that way,” Fox said.
“Even with LIV coming along, the competition has been good for golf as a player; there’s more money, there’s a whole lot of extra stuff going on. It’s been pretty frustrating with the divisiveness in the game that’s been going on in the last year, so I think in that regard most guys will be pretty happy that’s on its way out.”
With Fox largely in the dark, it’s possibly ideal timing that the third major of the year falls this week. With all of the game’s best at the Los Angeles Country Club, and likely some leading officials as well, he’ll try to use the time not only to play well, but to learn a bit more.
“This week may not be the week to do it but I’m kind of looking forward to sitting down with a couple of guys and [asking], ‘what do you know, what do you think’s going to happen?’ I certainly didn’t get that last week, I turned down a lot of interview requests last week purely because I had no knowledge of what was going on. Other than the press release I was running blind and that still feels like the case at the moment.”
Fox heads into the week off the back of some strong showings in his PGA Tour events so far this season.
Since breaking into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings he’s made the most of his opportunities, having played six Tour events as well as two majors and the WGC Matchplay.
In those events, he’s finished in the top 30 in all bar two, with one missed cut and a withdrawal following a bout of pneumonia picked up in the latter stages of his debut Masters.
He's still battling that pneumonia and isn’t back to full power, while he’s also had another small injury to contend with.
“I tweaked my back at [the] Memorial [Tournament], I stepped in a hole. I struggled with that for the week, so it was nice to get home and have a few days off and get that right,” Fox revealed.
He tried to swing a club late last week.
“We got it moving again and they said, ‘look you’re going to be sore, it’s going to be probably a bit niggly for a couple of days,’ and it feels really good now. So I’ll have one good night’s sleep on it tonight hopefully and see how it goes on the range tomorrow, but I haven’t felt it for a good day and a half so that’s a good sign.”
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