Ryan Fox made a brave
run at winning the Challenge Tour’s season long Road to Oman but came up just
shy after two late bogeys in the final round of the final event of the season.

The talented New
Zealander entered the last event of the year third in the standings and needed
to win the NBO Grand Final and have leader Jordan Smith finish 14^th
or worse to take top spot.

While Smith eventually
finished T17, Fox’s run at the title faltered on the final nine holes of the Al
Mouj golf course when two dropped shots saw him fall from a share of second to
T6.

Having entered the
final day in third place and just three shots off the pace, Fox made a
brilliant start with two birdies in his first three holes.

He stumbled with a
bogey at the 5th but immediately hit back with consecutive birdies to go to the
turn 3-under and keeping pace with leader Bernd Ritthammer.

But Fox’s challenge
came to an end with dropped shots at 11 and 12 followed by six straight pars to
sign for a final round of 1-under 71.

It was a disappointing
finish to the week for Fox, whose Saturday 64 had given him a legitimate chance
to win the season long points race and grab a full European Tour card.

However, having
finished fourth on the final standings Fox will be well pleased with his play
in 2016 having achieved his number one goal of earning Tour status.

It is a welcome result
after a heartbreaking close call in 2015 when Fox finished 16^th on
the Order of Merit, one spot outside earning status for 2016.

Nick Cullen was the
other Australian in the field hoping to push his way into the top-15 at the end
of the week and while he came up short of that goal showed some good form in
Oman.

Having entered the
week 38^th out of 45, Cullen was always going to need something
special to advance but got off to a slow start.

An opening round of
even par-72 had him mid field and while he made up ground with a second round
66 to move into the top-10 a third round 75 sealed his fate.

At 15 shots behind
with one round to play a win was out of the question and a final round of
2-under 70 saw him finish T26 for the week and 41^st on the Road to
Oman.

Cullen will now return
to the annual qualifying school to try to earn status in Europe but will take
some confidence with him after a solid 2016 campaign.

Only one player in the
top-45 on the secondary Tour played less events than Cullen, the Australian’s
ranking after only 11 starts testament to the state of his game.