CHALLENGE TOUR: Fox surges to second title

KIWI Ryan Fox fired a course record equalling nine under 62 final round to snatch the Tayto Northern Ireland Open by four strokes.

His record round equalled Joakim Lagergren’s score in the 2014 tournament as he came from three shots behind at the start of the final round to clinch his second European Challenge Tour title.

The New Zealander burst out of the gates with a birdie-eagle start to join a share of the lead with South African Dylan Frittelli. Fox added four more birdies before the turn to be out in 29.

A quartet a birdies at the 10^th, 11, 14^th and 15^th holes had Fox well on track for a shot at a sub-60 round, but a bogey on the par-4 16^th put that magic number out of reach.

Ryan Fox now heads to the Olympics with a win under his belt.
PHOTO: Mark Runnacles/Getty Images.

But his 62 and a 19 under 265 total was plenty of grab the win ahead of overnight leader Frittelli (69), Englishman Max Orrin and German pair Dominic Foos and Bernd Ritthammer, who all closed with 65.

“To be honest, I played exactly how I played all week,” Fox said. “But I got really hot with the putter. I played solid from tee to green the whole week, and today I left myself a lot of makeable putts.

“It (the putter) got hot and it was nice to keep seeing the ball go in. I thought I was flirting with the magical number for a while, but a three-putt on 16 didn’t help that.

“My start was a bit better than Saturday; I was one over after those two holes. I holed a nice putt on the first and I was perfect on the last on the green. Yesterday, I went too far right, but I hit a great shot today and rolled in a nice putt from eight or nine feet.”

Winner of the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in 2015, Fox had previously played in four Challenge Tour events in 2016, finishing second, tied fourth, tied seventh and tied 18th.

Fix now heads to Rio for the Olympic Games and he says there is no better preparation than a victory.

“I couldn’t have played any better and it’s nice to go into the Olympics with some form,” he said. “It’s always a good feeling to win.

“It’s hard to get your first win and sometimes it seems harder to keep doing it. It’s great to be a two-time winner on the Challenge Tour and build on the experience I had last year.

“It’ll be great in Rio, I’m looking forward to being part of the New Zealand team; we don’t get the opportunity very often in golf.”

Victorian Daniel Gaunt was the best of the Australians. After opening with a 65, he finished at eight under and T23, 11 shots behind Fox. The only other Aussie in the event, Peter Stojanovski of NSW, missed the cut.