Ryan Fox’s fantastic new problem after securing PGA Tour special temporary membership

Ryan Fox finished in a share of 23rd at the US PGA Championship 2023 at Oak Hill Country Club. Photosport

Ryan Fox needs a good schedule planner after acquiring special temporary membership on golf’s PGA Tour following another strong showing at a major.

After a month away from tournament golf due to pneumonia and a trip home for the birth of daughter Margot, Fox finished in a share of 23rd place at the PGA Championship yesterday, 12 shots behind winner Brooks Koepka.

Fox, playing his first tournament since finishing T26 at the Masters, had four birdies and five bogeys on the final day to earn US$165,000 ($262,000).

He did enough to secure the special temporary membership which grants him unlimited entries for the rest of the PGA Tour season, pending an invite. Fox had 12 tournament starts to earn enough points for the temporary membership but did it in just seven events, having missed just one cut; while also withdrawing from the RBC Heritage due to pneumonia.

He can now secure full status on the PGA Tour for the 2024 season if he earns as many, or more, non-member FedEx Cup points as the 125th placed player in the final 2022-23 FedEx Cup standings and Eligibility Points List.

It means his schedule for the rest of 2023 needs some working out.

“It’s going to be an interesting rest of the year schedule-wise, I might end up playing a bit more over here than in Europe,” Fox told Newstalk ZB’s Jason Pine.

“That was the goal and it kind of complicates the schedule a little bit, but it’s, you know, nice to tick it off relatively early. I’ve still got a fair bit of work to do to try to get a card out on the PGA tour for next year.”

Fox is en route to Texas this morning for the Charles Schwab Challenge starting Friday. He plans to play The Memorial the following week in Ohio, one of the PGA Tour’s ‘elevated events’, before returning home for a week for some family time.

Then it’s the US Open at the Los Angeles Country Club in the middle of next month, his third major of the year.

From there the schedule gets a bit flexible as the goal for Fox is to earn a full PGA Tour card next season. The Travelers Championship, the week after the US Open, is also an ‘elevated event’ and carries a purse of US$20m - very appealing. It is however taking place in Cromwell, Connecticut which is on the other side of the US - not ideal but probably not a big factor for Fox who is used to covering big distances on the eve of an event (see last week)

Then the following week the options are to stay in the US and play the likes of the Rocket Mortgage Classic (Detroit) and the John Deere Classic (Illinois) where strong showings would help earn a PGA Tour card for next year.

Or the likely option is to head to the DP World Tour’s British Masters, where he finished eighth last year, and start building on his season in Europe where a top 10 finish on the season standings, he’s currently 33rd, also earns a PGA Tour card for next year.

Book him in for the Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club from July 13-16, a co-sanctioned event a week out from the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool GC, which will be Fox’s seventh attempt to lift the Claret Jug. The BMW Championship at Wentworth in September is a lock while being around France in mid-September for the French Open while a certain rugby tournament is being played might be appealing.

He also has the luxury of having already secured a two-year card for the DP World Tour, following his victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last October which he’d likely want to defend.

“At this point, it’s all still pretty new and up in the air. All of those events in Europe are fantastic events and ones I want to play and have played well in, in the past,” Fox said.

“We’ll figure out what happens over the next few days. It’s a bit of a different problem than I expected to have this year. I was almost kind of looking forward to taking some time off when you have number two arriving and could spend some time at home and all of a sudden, I’ve got all these opportunities over here and lots of events to play and everything’s kind of changed up.

“So it’s, it’s been a busy change, but a nice one.”