Golf: Ryan Fox commits to European Tour return next month after impressive form run

Fresh from winning back to back Charles Tour events at Gulf Harbour and Muriwai, New Zealand number two Ryan Fox has committed to returning to the European PGA Tour next month.

Fox, who hasn't played on the Tour since a top ten finish in Saudi Arabia in early February, is planning to play either the British Masters (12-15 May) or the Denmark Open. (May 27-30)

However, he will travel to Europe without his wife Anneke and baby daughter Isabel who he hopes will be able to join him by July.

"I still have to figure out what the European side of things look like and if I have to do any quarantine and all of that stuff over there. I think the UK is starting to open up but I am still not sure what that means for me traveling over there," Fox said.

Fox says there are still a few questions he is waiting on answers for.

"I am trying to figure out a few things, can the family come to events? Can I figure out if my wife can get vaccinated before she goes? Hopefully they will follow sometime in June or July if I go in May but for her to travel with the little one it will be imperative for her to have a vaccination," Fox lamented.

The 34-year-old had his first shot of the Pfizer vaccine on Saturday and his second shot will be at the start of May before he leaves for Europe.

"I had the shot on Saturday and probably got lucky, didn't know how I would feel after that so going out and shooting 64 in the last round at Muriwai didn't seem to affect me too much and the next one I will have after the New Zealand PGA which runs into the first couple of days of May."

Fox may have to stay in New Zealand for a few days after the second jab of the vaccine before he travels which could rule him out of the British Masters.

He intends playing the Wairakei Open Pro Am as the defending champion before playing the New Zealand PGA Championship at Te Puke at the end of the month before he heads back to Europe.

Fox is hopeful the European Tour will open up a bit to allow some crowds and family of players on course by the middle of the European summer.

"That's going to be a big thing for me to make the family be able to travel; it doesn't make sense if they can't come to events and just return to some form of normality," Fox said.

There will be two highlights this year for Fox who has slipped to 184 in the world rankings, having been as high as 66 in 2019. He will tee it up at the Open Championship at Royal St George's Golf Club in Kent in July and the Tokyo Olympics, should he get selected.

"It's been pretty obvious I haven't played great golf when I have come back from a big break so I definitely don't want to go into British Open cold so I will definitely be playing those big events in July, in the lead up to that to make sure I am in decent form and then hopefully the same thing for the Olympics a couple of weeks after that."

Fox has played the Olympic course in Tokyo in the Asian Amateur Championships a decade ago and he is relishing the opportunity to return.

"They love golf up there and having Hideki Matsuyama win the Masters there will be a lot more buzz around that as well. Japan has the second or third biggest golf market in the world and Hideki is an absolute superstar in Japan and it will be huge for Japanese golf and big for the Olympics."