“There’s a great sense of pride coming back as the defending champion,” Fox told the Herald.
“It’s such an iconic event and one I’ve always enjoyed playing. I’ve had a lot of history here with Warnie [Shane Warne] over the years [in the ProAm event], and it was really sad to not have him here last year. It is humbling to come back for it in that sense as well. It’s a great part of the world, and to have your name etched in a bit of history here is very cool.”
In the year since Fox’s one-shot win at St Andrews, his star has only continued to rise, highlighted by him winning the BMW PGA Championship against an elite field at Wentworth in England last month.
“It’s hard not to think something’s happened after that. I got a chance to take down most of the [European] Ryder Cup team down the stretch of one of our iconic tournaments and a really strong golf course,” Fox said of his win at Wentworth.
“I can definitely take a lot of confidence from that; it’s still a bit surreal that it happened, and if I don’t win another tournament, having won here at St Andrews and at Wentworth, those are two pretty good ones to tick off. But I’ll certainly be trying to push for a few more out here.”
Fox returns to the tee boxes in Scotland this weekend following a week off, during which he was able to relax and enjoy watching the Ryder Cup to get the competitive juices flowing again after a missed cut in France a fortnight ago.
He admitted he was still feeling the after-effects of celebrating his win the week prior when the French tournament got under way, and said aside from a solid second round, he wasn’t taking too much away from that performance.
“I played really nice on Friday. I birdied the last to think I was going to make the cut, and it didn’t quite fall my way. It was just Thursday morning when we got out in the awful conditions with the wind and rain, and, after what had happened on Sunday, a nice two-day hangover,” Fox said.
“So very limited prep in France, and my head was still scrambled on Thursday morning. The golf game was still in decent shape but the head wasn’t really prepared to grind it out in those conditions, which is probably a bit understandable, but also a bit disappointing as well.”
Heading into this week’s tournament, Fox sits third overall on the DP World Tour’s order of merit and is in a prime position to secure his fulltime card for the PGA Tour next year.
While there is still a possibility he earned enough points in his travels around America earlier this year to qualify down that route, with the top 10 World Tour golfers who don’t already have a PGA Tour card securing one for the 2024 season, Fox is in a terrific spot to wrap that up.
“It’s still a matter of waiting and seeing where the chips lay. I think mathematically, it would be rather hard for it to happen, but golf’s a strange game,” Fox said.
“I’ve got a few chances to make sure it’s all locked up, and the goal for me, more than that, is that there are some benefits of finishing higher up the order of merit and getting potentially the top card not otherwise exempt, which I’m currently in line for at the moment. The goal is more to make sure I get that at the end of the year, rather than just make sure I qualify.”
