Ryan Fox resumes US road trip at PGA Championship after bout with illness and welcoming second child

Ryan Fox will return to action for the PGA Championship this week. Photo / Getty Images

When Ryan Fox took to the course for the RBC Heritage in mid-April, he had an experience unlike any other in his golfing career.

After feeling unwell for the back end of The Masters, a couple of lighter days had him feeling like he was trending in the right direction ahead of the tournament at Hilton Head.

Instead, when he got on the course for his opening round, things went south quickly.

“I thought, other than a cough, I’d kicked most of it. But as soon as I got on the golf course again on the Thursday and had to use a bit more energy and brain power, that kind of just knocked me for six,” Fox recalled to Newstalk ZB.

“I’ve never felt like that on a golf course before. Just having no energy, just kind of no urge to be out there, which was a very, very strange feeling.”

Fox - who is fewer than seven FedEx Cup points from being eligible for a PGA Tour special temporary membership - withdrew from the tournament after shooting six over par through his opening nine holes and jumped on the flight back to New Zealand the following day. After seeing a doctor, all signs pointed to pneumonia, and it was about two weeks before he started to get his energy back.

“It was one of those ones where you just think, ‘oh I’ve got a bit of a bad cold or maybe a chest infection’, with what was happening and a couple of days off I should start to feel better, and that wasn’t the case,” Fox said.

“I’m glad I got home and got over it, and actually had a bit of time at home to be able to do that as well, because if I had to go back on the road a couple of weeks afterwards, I think I would have really struggled.”

While at home, Fox and his wife Anneke welcomed their second child, which has kept him busy for the two weeks since his illness.

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Heading back to the States for the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in New York this week, Fox admitted he was going into the second major of the year a bit underdone.

“It’s probably the lightest preparation I’ve done in the lead-up to a major. Normally I like playing a tournament the week before, but obviously I wasn’t going to leave my wife at home with a 3-day-old. That would have been a bit tough,” he said.

“I managed to do a little bit last week in between our awful weather up in Auckland; played nine holes three or four times, played one full round of golf... The golf game doesn’t feel too far away, but tournament-wise it’s pretty tough coming off four-and-a-half weeks off - and in three-and-a-half of those I didn’t touch a club.

“So it’s probably not the ideal preparation for a major but circumstances kind of dictated otherwise and hopefully just coming in this week mentally fresh will make a bit of a difference, but I’ll certainly be a bit rusty tournament golf-wise.”

The tournament will see Fox resume his hunt for that special temporary PGA Tour membership. Currently holding 169 FedEx Cup points, Fox only needs 6.228 points to meet that threshold and a finish of 57th would see him hit that mark.

As a non-member, Fox is limited to 12 PGA Tour starts this year. However, with a special temporary membership, non-Tour players are able to accept unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the season - meaning more opportunities to compete on golf’s biggest tour.

Fox will tee off late on Thursday night (NZT) alongside American Tom Hoge and Korean Lee Kyoung-Hoon.

He will be one of two Kiwi golfers in the field at the PGA Championship this week, with Steven Alker earning a spot on the tees thanks to winning the PGA Champions Tour outright in 2022.