"I gave myself chances all day and probably didn't feel it was quite there," Fox said. "The course was there for the taking [in the morning] - the greens were really good and not a lot of breeze out there.
"I probably rode Josh's coat-tails a bit today, he had it going and could have shot anything," said Fox.
His driver behaved but the rest of his game was not quite in sync. A hot patch in the middle of his round was undone with a double bogey at the short par four 5th.
Geary overturned a double-bogey start to find an eagle and seven birdies in his round.
"I gained momentum during the round and started to hit some really good golf shots and make some putts so that's a good sign," he said.
"I think there will be some good scoring this week."
Fox played the course a month ago and felt the staff had done a great job to get it into shape in the dry conditions. If the weather behaved, it might take a score around 20-under to win the tournament but if the breeze got up on the narrow course somewhere around 12 under might prevail.
The greens were firm and rolling true with a nice holing speed.
When he won a fortnight ago in Toowoomba, Fox's game was in similar shape before he blazed out of the pack with a final round 62 to take the title.
"This week kind of felt the same, it was almost there, almost hitting good shots and all it takes sometimes is one or two shots to find that really good feeling."
Fox used his driver a lot on the tight layout and was pleased with those results except on the short par four 5th when he made a double-bogey.
Friends, family and interested spectators swelled his audience to about 150 on the way around the par 72 layout.
In the last year he'd worked on every part of his game and sharpened his driving accuracy.
