The final major of 2021 is upon us and to the delight of kiwi golf fans, we have two of our professionals in the field vying for the Claret Jug in Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier. It is a welcomed return for The Open Championship as the event in 2020 was cancelled due to covid-19.
For Ryan Fox this will be his 5th attempt at claiming the Claret Jug and having made three of the four previous cuts in The Open Championship, now is the time for Foxy to make his mark at this level.
Ryan is coming off some decent form in Europe that suggests you can expect to see him at the top end of the Leader board. Three top 20’s back in June have been followed by a missed cut in Ireland but a 44th place finish at The Scottish Open gave Foxy two more opportunities at playing on the weekend which is where he tends to build momentum.
We caught up with Ryan this week ahead of the event.
PGA: “How’s the game been feeling as you head in to your fifth Open appearance?”
RF: “The game has been pretty close since I’ve been up here. A little scrappy the last couple of weeks but been working hard to rectify that. Short game and putter have worked well so just need to put it all together and hopefully this is the week for it.
PGA: “What’s it been like having another kiwi in the field in rising star Dan Hillier? Have you been able to spend some time with him?”
RF: “It’s been good having Dan in the field. He’s a good kid and a heck of a player. We got to have a practice round on Tuesday together so that was cool. He seems like he’s not phased by the big stage which is good.”
With another opportunity at representing the NZ Team at The Tokyo Olympics in just a few weeks time, a highly motivated and confident Ryan Fox can foot it with the best in the world.
For New Zealand’s rising star Daniel Hillier, he is beginning to make a name for himself on the world stage. The proud Wellingtonian successfully qualified for his second major championship courtesy of claiming medallist honours at the final stage qualifying in Nottinghamshire, England just a few weeks ago.
You can follow the leader board and all the action here: https://www.theopen.com/leaderboard