Five years ago Fox claimed the WA Open title at Royal Fremantle the week after finishing runner-up to Brett Rumford at Kalgoorlie. While both Rumford and Fox were relegated a spot down the leaderboard by Jarryd Felton’s win last week, the 43-year-old said that his Sunday flurry was a timely boost given he has been without tournament golf since the Malaysia Open in March.

Two birdies and an eagle around the turn thrust Fox into third on the final WA PGA leaderboard and provided a platform to push for a second WA Open crown over 54 holes starting Friday.

“Let’s hope the serendipity looks down on me,” said Fox.

“The only difference is that ‘Rummy’ won at Kalgoorlie five years ago and I finished second to him and now Jarryd’s got up and Rummy’s finished second. I hope that doesn’t mean he wins this week. I’d rather it be me.

“My game has been consistently better so I felt like I was a good chance to do well in Kalgoorlie and then obviously I’ve had a bit of success at Royal ‘Freo’.

“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to use this as a platform to replicate what happened five years ago. That’d be nice.”

Fox’s win at Royal Fremantle in 2015 was significant for a number of reasons.

Not only did it represent his first win on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia but gave him the confidence to contend in a number of other tour events towards the end of the season.

A week later he was top-five at the NSW Open and then backed that up with a tie for 12th at the Australian Masters where five closing birdies in an opening round 65 had him trailing Adam Scott by a single shot.

“Pressure’s pressure no matter where you are so for me, I really enjoyed the fact that I had a win,” Fox recalled of his WA Open breakthrough.

“It was the first time I’d won on tour, home-town win as well, your state open. Just the realisation that instead of winning pro-ams against the same players, winning an Order of Merit event definitely carries more weight. I felt that way.

“It is different. Even though it’s not a national event in terms of TV and stuff, there are still leaderboards, there are spectators walking around and you have to get the ball in the hole.

“Starting with Kalgoorlie and then onto the WA Open, we had about seven evets to finish the year off and I just got on a really good run.

“I made all the cuts and finished quite well and ended up finishing 11th on the Order of Merit that year.

“These two events all that time ago were definite springboards for me to finish the year off.”

The reality of a tournament year that has been decimated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is that this could be Fox’s final event of significance until 2021.

He’s content with that, understanding that it is out of his control, and has used his time playing member comps at Melville Glades Golf Club to expand his shot-making repertoire in preparation for a busy start to next year.

“There’s nothing I can do about it. Everybody wishes that things were different but we just can’t do anything,” Fox reasoned.

“I’ll just ride the year out. Look forward to playing this week because when you’ve got nothing but members comps it’s nice to feel like you’re being put in that competitive environment to see where your game’s at.

“My form’s good. Where I play at in Perth at Melville Glades is different to where I’ve been playing previously.

“I hit at least 12 clubs in my bag in almost every round I play. It’s not a course where you hit driver, a bunch of wedges and the occasional mid-iron. I hit almost every club in my bag when I play it so it feels to me that my ball-striking has just got that little bit better.

“I’ve been scoring OK out there in elements of my game where I normally haven’t. Chipping and pitching have been better and I’ve been making a few more putts. So instead of waiting for the odd wedge shot to be close or birdieing a par 5 I’ve been scoring with mid-irons by hitting them close.

“I’m just waiting – like everyone else – for this year to end and then hope we can magically be in a position where our country is sorted out and we can do a bit of travel. Even if that involves eight, nine, 10 weeks in a row and then come back and home quarantine. Or hopefully not have to quarantine at all.”

Joining Fox in the field at Royal Fremantle this week are six-time European Tour winner Brett Rumford, last week’s WA PGA champion Jarryd Felton, 2012 champion Oliver Goss, three-time WA Open winner Kim Felton, Michael Long, Wayne Smith and Scott Strange.