Ryan Fox secures T11 finish at Sanderson Farms Championship, makes progress to retaining PGA Tour card

So far, so good for Ryan Fox in his bid to retain a PGA Tour card for next season.

Heading into the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi, at 109 in the FedEx Cup standings with the top 125 securing a card for next year, Fox has finished in a tie for 11th and moved seven places up the standings in 102nd.

Despite carding only a solitary bogey on the way to a three-under 69 in the fourth round at Country Club of Jackson, New Zealand’s top men’s golfer was unable to stay inside the top 10 at the tournament and his 18 under had him finish five shots behind winner Kevin Yu who won in a playoff against Beau Hossler.

Remaining bogey-free until the 12th hole and scoring four birdies in the process, Fox was on track to place inside the top 10, but a bogey on 12 after narrowly missing his par putt was eventually the difference as he missed out by only one shot.

With Fox now more comfortable inside the top 125 of the FedEx Cup, he can go into his next three tournaments knowing he has made progress to returning to the PGA Tour next season after an up-and-down year.

He will play twice more in his return to the United States before heading to Japan for the Zozo Championship after getting entry into the limited-field event.

Fox came into his latest US run after a two-tournament return to Europe, finishing 61st at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in Surrey, Britain, last time out.

As reported by the Herald last week, Fox has had a cortisone injection to help deal with a niggling hip injury, which he believed he would be able to play through for the rest of the season.

It’s something that has been lingering throughout the season, so he hoped he would be able to lock his Tour card up over the next month and allow himself a bit more time for recovery.

“It’s far more a band-aid than a cure but for me, it was a little bit of a diagnostic thing to see if the hip was a bit of soft tissue that was going on; the cortisone would work a lot better on the soft tissue than if it was something a bit more structural or bone related,” Fox said of the injection.

“So far, so good. It seems to feel like it’s quite a bit freer and moving a little bit better. It’s been pretty good in practice and it should get better and better over the next couple of weeks.

“I’m still going to have to actually have an action plan going forward to try to get it fixed rather than, you can’t just keep putting injections in it. They lose their effect over time if you have too many of them and you certainly don’t want to get into the habit of having to have them to keep playing.”

Elsewhere, up and comer Kazuma Kobori has continued his strong 2024 season tied for 12th at the the Alfred Dunhill Links at St Andrews in Scotland. A final round featuring eight birdies and just one bogey saw him rocket 46 places up the leaderboard and finish 16-under for the tournament eight shots back from winner Tyrell Hatton

Fellow Kiwi Dan Hillier faded from as well placed as tied for third to finish in a nine-way tie for 25th. An even-par 72 fourth round had Hillier finish at 14 under in a tie that included world No 3 Rory McIlroy.