Daniel Fox has cut his celebrations short as he looks to
defend his first Tour title this week.

The PGA Tour of Australasia has returned to Perth for the
2016 Nexus Risk TSA Group WA Open just six months after the Fox won the
tournament last year.

"I try not to take it too personally that they’ve moved it six months ahead
so I don’t get to celebrate it for a whole year," joked Fox.

"I actually applaud them for trying to streamline the Tour
stops so it rolls into the May pro-am circuit."

"I’m happy to just be playing tournaments, and it’s good to
have won one as I didn’t think that would be possible." 

While Fox didn’t get a full 12 months to enjoy the glory of
being the WA Open champion he has enjoyed a boost of confidence.

"I always imagined about having to play a certain way to win," continued
Fox.

"Whenever you play your best golf you imagine that in order to win that’s
how you have to play. It’s hard to do that for four days let alone one day."

"I was in such a good headspace over that three week run that I had last
year. Whenever I was in contention and playing well I just believed in whatever
I had."

"I have a quiet confidence now that if I play at a good standard it will get
me in contention, and the experience I have will be enough when the pressure is
on to push ahead and get a win."

Fox comes into his title defence fresh from a tied 7^th
finish at the South Pacific Export Radler PNG Open last week.

"I’m feeling good and looking forward to it, it’s always
good to have a good preparation to the event especially if you’re going to
defend one," added Fox, who opted to save his course practice until tournament
week.  

"I haven’t even bothered to go out there before the
tournament week."

"I’ve tried in the past and it seems that the golf course is different from
the week of the event. They tend to cut the greens a bit more, so I didn’t want
to build up a pre-existing idea of how the course will play, only to arrive a
few weeks later and have it feel foreign to me."

"I’ve played (the Western Australian Golf Club) plenty as a kid – and it’s
similar to Lakelands. You have to drive it quite straight as it’s not overly
long. There’s a premium on hitting the fairways and having good distance
control. I imagine the greens will be running pretty quick, so it’ll probably
play similar to Royal Fremantle did [in 2015].

However, Fox will be able to use his home town knowledge to
his advantage when the tournament tees off on Thursday.

"The biggest advantage for me is the wind direction. Knowing where it comes
from at different times of the day and it’s quite easy for me to start trusting
it."

"For a few other guys it might take a bit of time to try and work it out.
It’s those little things like that, home knowledge and being from the same
state, so that’s what’s handy."