MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2024

Ryan Fox

Quick Quotes

Q. Tell us about today. What things clicked for you? What worked?

RYAN FOX: To be honest, everything worked really well today. I drove it great, which is pretty important around here. Had a lot of decent iron shots and holed some putts. Made a couple of nice up-and-downs towards the end of the round.

I felt like it got really hard to pick the wind the last few holes, and I did pretty well to hang on to 3-under when I didn't really feel like I did a whole lot wrong.

But yeah, was pretty happy with the round. If you'd have given me 3-under without teeing off today, I certainly would have taken it.

Q. There was a moment there at Amen Corner where everybody was struggling with little shots. Can you take us through your --

RYAN FOX: Yeah. 10, 11, 12 today were really tough, straight into the wind. I think we played 10 and 11 in and out of the left, which is, especially on 10, a pretty awkward wind for that hole.

I hit two great shots into 10, 3-iron, 6-iron to the middle of the green and two-putted. Had a good drive down 11; was kind of blocked out by the tree. Kind of chip cut a 6-iron that didn't get touched by the wind too much and ended up just long right and actually wasn't a bad chip.

And then I was the guinea pig on 12 when we got up there and I had wedge out and I hit it, and I think that's hardest shots in golf, that. To pick the distance in there and hit a good shot in there to about 30 feet sort of felt like it was going to go a bit closer than that, but anytime you see the ball land on that green you're pretty happy, and two-putted.

Unfortunately on 13 I hit it in the trees ans I laid up a little close and gave myself a nasty little shot off the downslope there and got a little bit too cute and caught it a bit fat.

But I made a pretty good 6 in the end. I think that was actually pretty important for my round. It kept the momentum going. If I would have made 7 there, I probably would have been a bit deflated but made a nice eight or ten-footer for 6.

Actually played the rest of the back pretty solid, just couldn't make any birdies.

Q. We talked yesterday, it looked like you took some good notes last year when you were here. Which of those notes helped you today?

RYAN FOX: I mean, probably 12. You've just got to feel like you flight one low in there, just try to take the wind as much as possible out of that, and I did that. I think also I figured out last year that the breeze switches around a lot, and you've just got to wait for your time to hit, and I thought I did a good job of that, but I still got a couple wrong out there today.

But when it's blowing this hard and it's gusty, especially through all the tall pines, it's going to be hard to get everything right, but for the most part, we did a really good job of that today.

Q. You started birdie-birdie-birdie, that had a to be a great feeling.

RYAN FOX: Yeah, I seem to have done the opposite lately in my rounds, started poorly and then kind of finished well to limit the damage. Hit a bit of an iffy drive down the 1st but had a nice shot with sand wedge there and obviously hit it pretty close.

You feel like 2 is a chance if you hit a good drive. I hit a good drive down there and got it up-and-down for birdie.

When we played 3, it was basically straight downwind and I got up in the greenside trap and hit a good bunker shot and thought, this is a bit nicer starting like that rather than being a couple over through 4 or something like what it's been the last few weeks.

Q. (Indiscernible).

RYAN FOX: No, that doesn't hurt. Hit a good drive down there, hit 6-iron in. We played that straight downwind before the breeze kind of swung around a little bit. I always find that a hard green to hit.

I hit it over the greens a couple of times there last year thinking I hit a good shot, and hit it exactly where I wanted to, and it was nice to roll in like a 25 or 30-footer there for eagle.

Q. We had a two-hour delay this morning and you were in one of the earlier groups so you don't have to worry about coming back tomorrow. Is that an advantage for you?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, yeah, I always find it quite tough coming back and finishing a round. You can get some weird shots if you get up and have to hit 16 first up or something like that.

You kind of never do that in golf very often, so I always find that quite strange, so I'm quite happy to be done today, obviously have a good score on the board and get another bit of a sleep-in today. I will say the two-hour delay was quite nice.

I had my alarm set for 6:00 and woke up just before it and saw the message saying we're delayed and went straight back to sleep. It was nice.