Top 10 in three of his past seven starts, there is a confidence in his game that could yield his first win since the 2018 Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship but victory at the Thai Country Club an hour out of Bangkok is not the primary motivator.

A graduate of Final Stage of Asian Tour Q-School last December, Fox is currently sitting 65th on the Habitat for Humanity standings and more than anything is determined to play his way into the top 60 by season’s end.

Starting this week there are potentially six events in which Fox will have the chance to further his position on the Order of Merit and wrap up a full card for 2020.

“That’s the only goal at the moment,” Fox said when asked of the motivation to earn full status for 2020 over the next six weeks.

“I might have enough already to keep my card in Australia so I’m basically putting all my chips into the Asian Tour.

“If I can get a full card next year and play a lot of those co-sanctioned events at the start of the year I’ll play for an extra $US5 million, $US6 million than I did this year, even if I don’t play in Australia.

“I put all my eggs in that basket to play up here and to be exempt for next year has been the goal all year.”

Celebrating his 43rd birthday on Tuesday, it has been a complicated journey for Fox to reach a point where he is producing better results on a more consistent basis.

The six top-10 finishes he has enjoyed this year are three times more than in any other year of his career yet playing opportunities remain hard to come by.

A tie for sixth at the Bank BRI Indonesia Open helped Fox in the re-rank of Q School graduates but a dwindling number of tournaments has meant starts have been more difficult than in previous years.

“I finished tied 16th at finals but there are a lot of different categories up here,” said Fox, who will return to the PGA Tour of Australasia at the NSW Open at Stonecutters Ridge.

“There are seven players who graduate up from the Asian Development Tour and they stagger the rankings, one from Q School and one from the ADT. So I ended up slipping down to 24th in Category 15 from Q School.

“It didn’t matter so much early on because they’re either full-field events that we get in or they are co-sanctioned events that none of us get in anyhow.

“It’s been difficult to attract sponsors and keep events going so it’s actually been quite tough to get into some of these events. A lot of the events you would have gotten into last year, because there are fewer events, more guys are playing the smaller events.

“I was fourth alternate for the two co-sanctioned events in Japan and Korea whereas last year guys in my category got in comfortably.

“I moved down six or seven spots missing those two events so it does put you a little bit behind the eight ball.

“That’s just part of the deal though and when I get my opportunity like this week I’ll make some decent money if I finish top 10.

“I’ll probably take the entire year to earn the money I need to get full status because there are so few events to play in but if I play well enough the next few weeks I might sow it up early in the piece and control what I do at the end of the year.”

The Thailand Open will also see the debut of Fox’s efforts for Movember as he endeavours to raise $1,500 for men’s health.

“I’m off to a good start. People have been really generous already,” said Fox.

“I’ve got a Wolverine-looking thing going at the moment so not sure where I’m going to go with it but whatever happens it will definitely be gone by December 1.”

Aussies Scott Barr and Daniel Gaunt are also in the Thailand Open this week via invitation along with Jason Norris, Terry Pilkadaris, Jake Higginbottom, Travis Smyth, Steven Jeffress, Andrew Martin and Josh Younger.

To donate to Daniel’s Movember fundraising visit https://mobro.co/danielfox511?mc=1.