THE 152ND OPEN

July 21, 2024

Ryan Fox

Mixed Zone

Q. What's your assessment of the week?

RYAN FOX: I felt on Tuesday making the cut was probably an achievement, and actually was in a pretty good place after Tuesday. Take the 11th hole out, and I'm right in the tournament.

Yesterday to go birdie-free, I had the nice conditions early on. Yesterday obviously the back nine was still tough in the rain. But it was a bit frustrating. I was a bit disappointed when I finished. Golf is a strange game. I've gone out and played great, really didn't miss a shot. The two bogeys I made today were a bad three-putt on 6 and one from off the green on -- another three-putt from off the green on 12. I didn't miss a start line, hit a lot of really good shots. It's just funny how stuff can change.

I'm glad to sign the week off on a good note.

Q. It kind of happens to you in the majors, something happens at the beginning of the week and then you do okay. It might be a sign of something.

RYAN FOX: Yeah, look, I've got a pretty good record in the majors in terms of made cuts. I think that's eight in a row now, which that's pretty cool. Just can't seem to put it all together. But I've done pretty well this year fighting it early in the week and coming in and playing half decent on Thursday and Friday and actually getting to the weekend. That's an achievement. I would have said yesterday after I played maybe the weekend wasn't a great thing, but I'll take that back. Today was pretty cool.

Q. 4-under par 67 to end your week. How much confidence does that give you?

RYAN FOX: A lot. I was pretty disappointed yesterday how I played. Hit my irons okay but really couldn't keep the ball in play with driver. Today was kind of the opposite with driver. I didn't miss a start line, hit a lot of really good drives, gave myself plenty of chances. It's tough out there. I hit a lot of really quality shots, so it was nice to sign the week off on that. I've got a few days off now before the Olympics. I've played a lot of golf this year. This is four in a row, and I think I played an eight in a row and a six in a row in there, as well.

It's certainly nice to finish this week on a good note and take a little bit of form into the Olympics.

Q. Just talk about yesterday. There's a lot of people saying that a scratch golfer wouldn't have broken 100 on that course yesterday. How bad was it?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, I watched the coverage yesterday afternoon. Obviously I had the nicer stuff. It was actually fairly playable the first 10, 11 holes we had. But even the back nine for us, when the rain came in, we're hitting really long irons into 15 and then I watched the coverage and seen guys hitting driver, driver into 15, drivers into 17. Yeah, yesterday I don't think there's anyway a scratch golfer is breaking 100. You're just going to lose so many balls out there. You're probably going to lose your head pretty quickly.

It's a testament to those guys in the lead. I think Billy Horschel's back nine was incredible, Scottie Scheffler, as well. Just to not play your way out of the tournament is incredible in those conditions. I think it's going to be a good watch this afternoon. I don't think it's going to be quite as tough, but it's certainly going to be tricky this afternoon.

Kind of just what you want at The Open. A bit of drama hopefully.

Q. Looking ahead to the Olympics, your first as a PGA Tour card holder. How excited are you to get out to Paris?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Paris is a brutal golf course, as well, but one I really like. You've got to hit a lot of quality shots around there to score, and hopefully we don't get too much wind for the week or that place gets very, very scary.

I'm very much looking forward to representing New Zealand again. I wouldn't have thought growing up that I'd play in three Olympics. I felt like for a while my game is good enough if I'm on to compete with the best, so I'm kind of waiting this year for the game to turn up, and next week wouldn't be a bad one for it to turn up in.

Q. You won a big title at Wentworth last year, but getting an Olympic medal would be the cream of the crop?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, definitely. It's a strange week for that. You're not really playing for anything else but the three. It almost feels like a shootout from the start of the week, like go hard or go home. It would be amazing to take home an Olympic medal. Obviously there's 59 other golfers in the field trying to do the same thing and it's a heck of a field for the tournament. I've got my work cut out to bring home one of those medals, but as I said, if my game turns up, I feel I can compete with the best guys, so here's hoping.

Q. How do you look at the standard of golf in New Zealand at the minute? We saw Dan play really well yesterday. You've got an exciting future.

RYAN FOX: Yeah, look, we've got four in the Open this week, which someone else can figure out if that's the only time we've done it, but I can't think of one off the top of my head. That's really cool. Obviously Dan has been a good player for a long time. Out of the blocks, he came out pretty strong, and he's maybe struggled a little bit this year, but it was great to see him turn it around last week and this week and find a bit of form again. Kazuma Kobori looks like a superstar in the making. He's got all the pieces, and I don't think too many people have had a better start to their professional career than him, and we've got a few other guys underneath those guys that are coming through.

I think it's a really strong period for New Zealand men's golf, and obviously we've had Lydia on Tour for a very long time and being one of the best in the world for close to 15 years now, and I think we've got a few young women and girls coming up behind her, as well. New Zealand golf is in a really great place at the moment.