It's conceivable that Ryan Fox could be taking part in his last professional golf tournament of 2021 in Saudi Arabia this week.
The 34-year-old has recently become a father and missed the end of last season to return home for the birth of his daughter Isabelle. After missing the cutin Abu Dhabi and finishing tied for 41st at the Dubai Desert Classic last weekend, Fox is due to arrive home again to take up his place in managed isolation on Tuesday, but has no idea when he will tee it up again on Tour.
That's because the Covid-19 situation in Europe is still dire, and it's unclear how quickly the vaccines will be administered. Fox thinks it's too soon for him to consider relocating with his wife and daughter to their London home by May or June.
"I don't know if Europe and the UK look okay come April or May and it's too far to know what's going to happen. The Tour doctors are optimistic that by the European summer the UK going to be in a pretty good place but how quick everything else has moved in this pandemic you don't really know," Fox lamented.
"It's kind of a 'wait and see' approach and it definitely looks like this year is going to be almost harder than last year."
Fox is refusing to contemplate basing himself in New Zealand and travelling back and forth to Europe several times a year and completing two weeks of managed isolation each time he returns.
Ryan Fox. Photo / Photosport
But Fox knows that if he doesn't play his world ranking – 208th - will probably drop too low to meet the qualifying criteria for Tokyo.
"The hard thing for Tokyo for me is not having not played a lot at the back end of last year I missed quite a few events because of the family situation and also the quarantine situation, so I've slipped down the rankings.
"In the worst-case scenario, I might not be able to play much in the lead up to the Olympics and maybe miss out on qualifying. Obviously, I would like to play the Olympics and will do what I can to qualify but if it puts the family in jeopardy or is too hard travel, then so be it."
At the Rio Olympics, the ranking cut-off for the 60-strong field was around 280 but Fox is realistic to know while he's comfortably inside that now, it could change.
"If I don't play a lot of golf between now and August when the Olympics are then it's not inconceivable that I would drop that far. I would love to go but there's a whole lot of other things going on as well which I've got to think about - and obviously the quarantine situation coming in and out of New Zealand. I can't see myself doing quarantine four or five times this year, it's just mentally not doable."
The best-case scenario would see Fox spend the next couple of months in New Zealand and then travel to England with his family around May should the Covid situation improve dramatically there as the vaccination roll-out gathers momentum.
But Fox says he is prepared for a lot of different scenarios.
"The worst-case scenario [is] having to take a Covid medical on Tour and almost not play for the rest of the year, try to go back and play at the top level after taking eleven months off.
"There's a lot of variance between those options and the world is changing pretty quickly at the moment so hopefully it starts changing for the better and everything becomes a bit easier."
