VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP

March 20, 2025

Ryan Fox

Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead)

Quick Quotes

Q. Pretty good start under your belt. Happy with that round playing in the morning I would imagine?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, I certainly would have taken it starting the day. Kind of got a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth I had two really good chances on 17 and 18 and decided to three-putt 18 from about 15 feet. I had a nice bogey-free round going. But there was a lot of good going today. I gave myself plenty of chances and had the putter been a little hotter it could have been really good. But I would have taken 68 to start the day.

Q. What happened on the last hole, looked like your drive went right. Did you get a drop?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, I leaked it a little, I hit the cart path and was up near one of the tents and ended up getting a pretty good number after the drop, hit a really good shot in there and just kind of got the slope a little wrong and it ran away a little bit and hit a pretty poor second putt there. It was a nice break on the last just to, just a shame to -- I mean the drive probably deserved a bogey, but a shame to not take advantage of a good break there.

Q. This is your second start here what, did you learn from first time you played at this course?

RYAN FOX: You got to be really patient around here to be honest. There's a lot of tough holes, you can't really take it on as much as you can some other golf courses. The rough's nasty, the greens get firm and fast. They're certainly starting to get this way later on, or early this afternoon. Yeah, patience is key. You don't have to go out there and shoot 20-under, if you get to double digits around here you're going to have a really good chance over the weekend. I did a pretty good job that have for the most part today, probably was a little too aggressive on a couple of holes, but I hit some really nice iron shots and go out with kind of the same game plan tomorrow.

Q. How would you assess your season so far?

RYAN FOX: Close. Last week at THE PLAYERS was a nice week. Again, Saturday Sunday I had two pretty decent rounds going and dropped a couple coming home on Saturday, played pretty awful but kept the score together the last few holes on Sunday. I missed a couple of cuts by one in Mexico and West Palm. The game's there, I just kind of got to put some scores together and today was nice not to make too many mistakes, that's kind of been the bane of my golf game at the moment. Make enough birdies, but make a ton of mistakes. Thankfully I only made one mistake today on 18 which was a pretty did you mean one, but the rest of it was pretty good.

Q. Is the course sneaky tough, like harder than you would think just by looking at the scorecard?

RYAN FOX: I don't think it's sneaky tough, it's just tough. Traditionally if you get to double digits around here you got a pretty good chance on the weekend and that's pretty tough for a PGA TOUR event. The greens get firm and fast, the rough's up, there's some pretty narrow corridors to hit down on a lot of holes, and I think on the card it's probably not that long, it's got five par-3s, which kind of take a little bit of yardage off, but there's a lot of holes where you're kind of forced to lay back a little bit as well so it plays longer than what it does on the card. But, yeah, you know if you go out and shoot anything better than even par out there you've had a pretty good day I think, it's one of those golf courses that I think that's why it's got such a good field, everyone loves coming here because it's so tough and but a fair golf course.

Q. The wind forecast, how big was it to get an early start today?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, I was pretty happy to get that draw when I saw what the forecast was. Definitely got support tee out there later on. It looks like it's going to continue into tomorrow morning and potentially die off later on. So it's nice to take advantage of those conditions this morning and hopefully I can do the same tomorrow afternoon when it starts to calm down. It goes both ways, I've had plenty of bad draws in my time and you always like it when you get a good one.

Q. What's your plan the rest of the day I know with the wind coming up does it affect whether you may or may not practice?

RYAN FOX: I'll do a little bit. I'll go have lunch and then I had a couple of squirrely drives, just a couple right shots with driver, need to do some putting as well. The putter kind of let me down today. Hopefully it's not too bad this afternoon you can still roll some putts on the greens and I certainly won't do much, but kick my feet up. It was a pretty early start but, yeah, have to do half an hour, 40 minutes after the round.

Q. Do you watch golf at all, would you turn on the coverage?

RYAN FOX: Yeah, I'll, if we can find it on TV at our house I'll certainly turn it on and watch a bit of the carnage this afternoon.