He tells the Herald from the United Arab Emirates ahead of the DP Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic that an extended break back home in New Zealand has helped him reset ahead of 2025 in more ways that one.
“Yeah, it’s pretty important. The last couple of years, I probably haven’t done it or had as much time as I would have liked at home.
“It’s been, I almost feel like I’ve finished the season, you know, just start to get relaxed, and then all of a sudden I’m going again. Back into last year, I was having a bit of an injury with the hip.
“It was kind of a perfect excuse to take a bit of time off and get that sorted, but also just be able to refresh and reset and as you said, you hang out with friends and family and catch up with everyone and I actually feel like I could get my golf game ready for a start of a new season.”
That injury, a labral tear and femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) in his right hip, plagued Fox’s season, requiring a cortisone injection to get him playing again last year.
He says the time back home has meant an opportunity to rehab the hip - and it’s made it through a New Zealand summer of social golf.
“I played a lot of golf in December and it managed to handle that very well, so I was hoping tournament golf is sort of no different to that.
“I can keep on top of that rehab through tournament golf and have no issues going forward.
“It is something that may give me some issues at some point, but I’ve sort of done everything I can control to make sure it doesn’t.”
Ryan Fox during a Pro-Am prior to the Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club. Photo / Getty Images
Athletes often talk on the subject of family and how being apart from loved ones can impact both mental state and performance - Fox is no different.
2024 wasn’t an easy year, with travel and the rigours of life as a full PGA Tour member wearing on Fox’s mental state and golf, leading to a rocky first season.
He says a decision to have his wife Anneke and daughters Isobel and Margot based in Florida for a time this year will provide a semblance of normality in the abnormal life of a professional golfer and their family - a decision that will hopefully pay dividends on the golf course as well.
“I mean, probably the biggest thing is the living situation and some of that was out of our control as well, but you know, trying to live out of a suitcase for - I think I did 37 weeks in a suitcase last year - that’s not really conducive to playing good golf.
“I had two young kids as well, and they did a fair bit of that so we’re going to be based in Florida for a decent stretch of next year and the family will still travel a bit, but it kind of makes it hopefully a little bit easier for all of us in that respect, you know, having a base over there and family being able to pick and choose what events to go to.
“Hopefully with the family being based over there and a bit less travel and being able to go back and unpack a suitcase every now and again, that hopefully helps the mental state and helps the golf as well.”
Fox says what he will be able to take from his first year on the PGA Tour is being in more familiar settings in his second season, which should also help him play better golf as he returns to courses that he was often playing for the first time last year.
“Having to learn new golf courses every week, most of the places I hadn’t played, I wasn’t in any Pro-Ams and trying to figure out how to play a golf course on a Tuesday in a pretty long practice round, and then go out and compete on a Thursday. I can learn a lot from that.
“I’ve always had that in Europe the last few years, it was pretty much every place we went to was a familiar golf course and I’m looking forward to a little bit of that on the PGA Tour, a bit more comfort in that respect.
“The other thing is just understanding how it all works. The PGA Tour is a little bit different in how everything works on the DP World Tour.”
Fox begins his season on the DP World Tour in one of the elevated Rolex Series events, the Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club. With elevated prize purses, these events attract the premier talent on the Tour, with two-time defending champion and world No. 3 Rory McIlroy the hot favourite to take the title.
Rory McIlroy and Ryan Fox at the 2024 BMW PGA Championship. Photo / Getty Images
The field is stacked right down the leaderboard with LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm and Tyrell Hatton, Brit Tommy Fleetwood, Norwegian sensation Victor Hovland and fellow Kiwi Dan Hillier just a few of the names Fox will be competing against in his first outing of the season.
A warm-up event would have been ideal, Fox says, but his preparation back at home and golf game are in a place where he is comfortable he can compete.
“I wouldn’t say there’s any pressure on, but it’s cool to come to a big event first up. Probably ideally it’d be nice to have a little bit of a warm-up event for this, but, that’s kind of not quite how the schedule works.
“I haven’t played a tournament since the end of October, so I’m kind of expecting there to be maybe a little bit of rust there, but I’ve done plenty of work at home in that respect.
“So, the golf game feels like it’s in good shape and hopefully I can take that good social golf that I’ve been playing out on to tournaments.”
This will be Fox’s ninth Dubai Desert Classic and he says he enjoys beginning the season here against Europe’s best. The proof will be in the scorecard but he backs himself to be near the top of the leaderboard come Sunday.
“It’s always a great event here in Dubai and it’s great to see a really strong field here this week. The golf course is in great shape and I’d love to be up near that pointy end come Sunday afternoon, that’s where you want to be, that’s why I play the game and I’m looking forward to seeing how the game stacks up after a couple of months off.”
Fox tees off at 4.55pm NZT in a group with England’s Jordan Smith and Denmark’s Thorbjørn Olesen.
Will Toogood is an online sports editor and golf reporter for the NZ Herald. He enjoys watching people chase a ball around on a grass surface so much he decided to make a living out of it.
