New Zealand professional golfer Ryan Fox is acquitting himself admirable in the USPGA Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club, just outside Charlotte, North Carolina.
He shot an even-par 71 on the third day of the tournament, which left him at one under par, six shot off the lead. Fox is trailing the leader, Kevin Kisner, a two-time winner on the US PGA Tour. Fox trails Hideki Matsuyama and Chris Stroud by five strokes going into the final round.
Despite heavy rains, or possibly because of those rains, the golfers found Quail Hollow challenging, as tee shots that found the fairways were stopped dead when they landed. Golfers who found the rough were often stymied by horrendous lies and tree limbs that left no options other than accepting the medicine for wayward tee shots and scrambling to limit the damage. Players who missed the greens with approach shots were confronted with shots where even getting the ball to stop on the putting surface of the undulating greens was a heroic achievement.
Fox got into the hunt with a second round 66 and his even par third round moved him down only one spot in the season’s fourth and final major championship of the 2016 – 2017 season.
He wound up one stroke ahead of Jason Day, who left his brain on the 18th tee and finished the third round with a quadruple bogey eight on the final hole.
Fox is not exactly a household name in golf circles, with three international victories to his credit, along with a win in the 2014 Western Australia Open Championship and the 2015 Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship. He played World Cup in 2016 and he represented the Kiwis in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Fox’s dad Grant was instrumental in helping the All Blacks beat France 29 – 9 in a 1987 win of the inaugural Rugby World Cup.