THE 152ND OPEN

July 19, 2024

Ryan Fox

Mixed Zone

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Q. How did you find the second round?

RYAN FOX: I thought it was a little easier than yesterday. Look, obviously we didn't have any rain today. I think through the first sort of eight, nine holes, the wind felt like it was down a little bit. I felt like I played pretty good for the first sort of nine or ten holes and then just hit one bad shot on 11 that kind of shook me a little bit, and scrambled my butt off coming home. I think 4-over should be fine.

Hopefully I have a little nap this afternoon and wake up and it's comfortably inside the number.

Q. What's it like finishing early on a second round knowing your score is probably enough to make the weekend? Clearly there's an advantage to just being able to rest up, think about the holes you've played, and then go again on the weekend?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, look, I never mind an early tee time in an Open. They're long. They can be really long days if you're late. You never know with the conditions. It could go either way. You could get lucky on an afternoon and it dies off or vice versa, morning could be really calm and it blows in the afternoon. I'm certainly hoping it's the latter for me this afternoon just to make it a little bit more comfortable, but it's nice to have a bit of a break before round 3, and as I said, I'll get a little bit of a nap in, watch some golf this afternoon and hopefully get to watch a little bit of carnage.

Q. Have you seen the weather for tomorrow?

RYAN FOX: Do I want to see the weather for tomorrow? Look, this place is brutal without the weather. If we've got some tough weather, then it is what it is. I'm a fair bit back of what the lead is going to be, so hard conditions might not be a bad thing. At least you shoot a couple under par and you go way forward tomorrow.

Q. Another major you stick around. There's something about the majors and you, no?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, look, I like hard golf for the most part. And it doesn't get any harder than the majors. Maybe the PGA was a little nicer this year than some, but I feel like we've had three really, really hard weeks at the majors this year. Obviously the conditions at the Masters were hard, Pinehurst is just a brute, and the same this weekend. It's kind of nice going out and not having to make a lot of birdies. You just know if you make lots of pars, you're doing pretty well, especially on a golf course like this when it's firm and it's fast and the wind is blowing a little bit.

Q. Kazuma looks like he might make the cut. Can you talk a little bit about him and his game?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, look, he's had just an incredible start to his professional career and an incredible end to his amateur career. He won on the Australian Tour as an amateur. He won the individual at world, at the Eisenhower, and then goes and wins three times in ten starts or something in Aussie. He's got everything bar a little bit of length. I think if he finds that, he'll be competitive anywhere.

I played a practice round with him at the PGA, and I think he figured out that he might need to hit it a little further to compete on those kind of golf courses, but around here where keeping it in play is more important than length, this is a golf course he could do really well at, and I hope he goes well today and makes the weekend, makes the first weekend for his major career.