New Zealander Ryan Fox reflects on his highs on the course and some lows away from it in recent years as he tries to make it on the PGA Tour
Ryan Fox finally believes he deserves “to be mentioned in the same breath” as the other sporting icons in his family. Fox’s father, Grant, achieved legendary status in rugby-mad New Zealand as the fly-half who inspired the All Blacks to triumph at the inaugural World Cup in 1987. The 126 points he scored remains a tournament record. And Ryan’s grandfather, Merv Wallace, captained the New Zealand cricket team and also went on to coach them. He even has a stand named after him at the world-famous Eden Park Outer Oval.
But after claiming the Seve Ballesteros award as the players’ player of the year at the end of 2022 – a season highlighted by his Alfred Dunhill Links success -Fox went on to win the DP World Tour’s showpiece event, the BMW PGA Championship, at Wentworth last September. And despite what he describes as a “pretty ropey time of it” so far this year, he feels he can now hold his head up when the family’s sporting achievements are listed.
“I would never claim that what I’ve done compares to what dad and my grandfather achieved, but that old line about wanting to be mentioned in the same breath definitely applies,” Fox admits. “In the last couple of years I’ve landed a big trophy at the Home of Golf, St Andrews, with mum and dad there to see it.
“I’ve also been presented with the Seve Ballesteros award, which means a lot as it’s voted for by your peers, and I’ve won at Wentworth, which is about as big as it gets outside the Majors. Oh yeah, I’ve also had a hole-in-one at one of the most iconic holes in golf, the 17th at Sawgrass. That has to be worth a few extra runs, or a few points on the board!
“I know how proud my dad is of what I’ve accomplished, and if my grandfather was still with us, I’m pretty sure he’d say, ‘The boy’s done good’ as well.”
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Wallace passed away in 2008, but before deciding to concentrate on golf, the 37-year-old Fox says he was far more likely to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps than those of his father. “I spent a load of time as a kid playing cricket in the back garden with my granddad, and I was a pretty useful batsman,” he says.
“My big thing was an ability to hit the ball out of the ground, or back over the sightscreens,” Fox says. No surprise given the strengths of his golf game. “If 20-overs cricket had been introduced a few years earlier, I could easily have seen myself going down that path. But by the time it took off, I’d already decided golf was where m
