Ryan Fox has made the agonising decision to give up the MIQ spots he had for him and his family and remain in Europe for the remainder of the European Tour season.
The New Zealand number one had vouchers booked for September 15 and intended to return to Auckland ifhe had done enough to guarantee that he would retain his card for next season.
However, missing the cut at last week's Italian Open in Rome has seen Fox slip seven spots to 97th in the Tour standings, with the top 115 at the end of the season assured of full playing status.
Fox will instead switch his focus to trying to finish the season strongly over the next couple of months and qualify for the season-ending DP World Championship in Dubai featuring the top 60 players in the Tour standings from November 18 to 21.
The 34-year-old admits that fretting over the decision on whether to return home knowing that he and his family are unlikely to get back for Christmas affected his form in Italy last week, where he finished eight over par and missed the cut.
"To be honest, I drove the ball pretty well for two days and then had a couple of bad drives and got punished," said Fox. "It was a frustrating week all round and was probably not helped by putting too much pressure on myself around trying to get home and worrying about MIQ spots and all that stuff. So it was just a week to forget and I'm looking forward to Wentworth this week, to be honest.
"I'm not thinking about it on the golf course but it's one of those things that's always in the back of your mind. I probably put a little bit of pressure on myself to try to play really well the last few weeks to guarantee that job, and maybe be able to go home in September.
"Hopefully the decision to stay sort of frees me up a bit this week and in the coming weeks and I'm not worrying about that stuff as much."
The BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth starting on Thursday night (NZT) is the flagship European Tour event and carries US$8 million in prize money. Fox is hoping now that he's made the decision to stay put, he will be able to play without distraction.
"We're going to stay regardless. I would like to get into Dubai at the end of the year and I've obviously got a fair bit of work to do for that. I have seven events left in our season including Wentworth so we're going to stay until the end of the year and take the gamble that hopefully we can get an MIQ spot at the end of the year." Fox said.
However, the reality is that with vouchers scarce, and a new lobby system created that sees people chosen randomly, Fox is not overly hopeful of getting home.
Ryan Fox of New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.
"I think we kind of have a best-case, middle-case and worst-case scenario going on in that regard. Obviously the best case would be getting home before Christmas and the worst case would be being over here. I'm not really sure what middle-case is at the moment, but I think we're lucky that I have a lot of events to play up until November," said Fox.
In the event that he can't get home he is hopeful the European Tour will announce additional events at the start of the 2022 season to be played before the end of the year.
"If they go ahead, and we are hearing rumours that there might be some events before Christmas, at least being over here won't be the worst thing in the world. Obviously I would like to be home for Christmas and have the little one sees the grandparents."
Fox has struggled at Wentworth over the years but draws confidence from finishing in a tie for 20th there last year.
"Right from the start I felt that it didn't suit me, but I did finish 20th last year and got some good vibes playing the golf course. I hit some nice shots out there today in the practice round I played so hopefully I can draw on that from last year and try and forget about the years gone by," said Fox.
"It's a good golf course - it's one where you need to be hitting it really well to score around, and I've done a lot of work the last few weeks trying to sort that out. I feel it's really close. I just need a couple of good shots to see it on the golf course and then I'll be fine again, and that confidence will come back. Hopefully this is the week that it happens."
