“I think it’ll probably take a while for it to kick in for everyone,” he said.
“I mean, I only played with him the week before for the first time but, again, it’s scary to think that it’s one week he’s here and the next week he’s not. It’s just going to be strange.”
It was the second death related to the PGA Tour in as many weeks, after a man was struck by a shuttle bus outside Valhalla Golf Club and died early in the morning before the second round of the PGA Championship. The increase of police presence around the golf club ultimately led to the arrest of world No 1 Scottie Scheffler as he tried to enter the golf course for his morning tee time, though he was released in time to play his second round. Scheffler was charged with a felony for assaulting a police officer with his vehicle and three other misdemeanours, but all charges have since been dropped.
Fox was among the many golfers to pay tribute to Murray in interviews or on social media over the last few days.
“A lot of strange things have happened in the world of golf in the last little while,” Fox said. “I think everyone’s just hoping for a relatively normal week in that sense. No scandals to happen, no one to pass away, no delays, nothing. Just a normal golf tournament.
“I think we need that and it looks like the weather is going to play ball at least for us this week, so hopefully there’s nothing else weird off the golf course that happens this week.”
Fox will go into this week’s event looking to build upon the good from his T32 finish at the Charles Schwab Classic. It was his eighth made cut of the year and second in a row, however, he admitted some missed putts cost him in his third round before a poor start to his final round saw him slip down the leaderboard a bit.
The field won’t have to worry about the weather so much in Canada this week – with near 40C temperatures at the peak of the heat as well as humidity at last week’s tournament in Texas.
This weekend will be Fox’s 11th tournament in the last 12 weeks.
“It’s very different than last week. Last week was very flat, very firm and obviously hot,” he said.
“This week, the nine I play [on Wednesday] had quite a bit of elevation change to it which is quite cool. It’s an old-school tree-lined golf course. They had awful weather in Toronto last weekend and on Monday...and there’s still a lot of standing water on the golf course and a fair bit of mud in some places so it’s going to play very different in that respect than last week.
“But it’s a strong test of golf from what I saw. A couple of long par-threes, a couple of long par-fours, especially with them now being wet, but it’s a really good golf course.”
Ryan Fox’s RBC Canadian Open round one and two tee times
Friday 12.35am and Saturday 5.50am - playing alongside Kevin Dougherty (USA) and Michael Blair (Canada).
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Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
