Leading by six shots at the start of the final round, Fox’s 22-under par total and five-stroke winning margin belies a final day that featured wild fluctuations before a 44-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole put the Kiwi back on course for victory.

Pacing the circumference of the greens like a lion stalking its prey, Fox gave up a shot with a careless miss from inside two feet at the par-3 fourth and late on the front nine Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal had a putt to cut the margin to just one.

That opportunity slid by the hole and Fox kept the chasing pack at arm’s length, back-to-back birdies at 12 and 13 giving the 35-year-old the confidence to go on and claim his second DP World Tour title and become the sixth New Zealander with multiple DP World Tour wins.

“I’ve got a nervous energy, my old man is the same – he paces around on the phone – and I think I probably walked 25 kilometres today with how much I paced around the greens,” said Fox, adding to his victory at the 2019 ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

“It was going south pretty quickly there and I’m pretty happy I could turn it around and show plenty of mental fortitude there.

“Sleeping on a six-shot lead I did not sleep very well last night and obviously a couple of guys came at me early.

“I was a bit nervous and had that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach all day but I’m very happy with how I played.

“I hit a couple of great shots coming down the stretch and it was certainly nice walking up the last with my putter in my hand knowing I had six putts for it.”

Fox’s daughter Isabel was born in December 2020 and the proud dad could not wait to get home and see her – after spending ten days in hotel quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was definitely thinking about the family coming down the last couple of holes, it’s pretty big for them,” added Fox, who moves to eighth in the DP World Tour Rankings and is projected to climb almost 100 spots to No.117 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

“They’ve got to come over to Europe every year and it’s a little bit harder with a little one now and this win makes it a little bit easier for them to do that.

“I’m a bit disappointed that I missed her walking and I’ve got 10 days in a hotel when I get home to think about that as well.

“I’m very much looking forward to seeing them when I get out late February.”

Larrazábal put his approach to 14 feet at the second and made a two-putt birdie on the par-5 third to trim the lead to four as Fox failed to take advantage of the driveable first and the par 5.

Fox missed a putt from around a foot to drop a shot at the fourth but for the seventh time this week, he responded with a birdie as he got up and down from the sand on the driveable fifth.

A bogey followed after a poor tee shot on the sixth and Larrazábal holed from nearly 40 feet on the seventh to reduce the lead to just two.

Fox took advantage of the par-5 eighth and did well to make par on the ninth and 10th after poor tee-shots but Larrazábal once again holed a long putt – this time from 25 feet on the 11th to get the gap back to two.

Long putts were the order of the day and Fox drained a 44-footer on the 12th before a stunning bunker shot ahead on the 13th set up another gain and he had some breathing space with a four-shot lead.

A Larrazábal bogey on the 17th saw him sign for a 69 and he was replaced in second by Englishman Ross Fisher, who completed his 66 with a two-putt birdie on the last.

West Australian Jason Scrivener (69) recorded his first top-10 since the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open last July to be the leading Australian, Wade Ormsby (69, T33) and Maverick Antcliff (72, T58) the other Aussies to make the cut.