Following his win at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth tournament last week kiwi Ryan Fox has received a late invitation to the Mexico Championship, part of the very lucrative and prestigious World Golf Championship circuit.

Originally planning a week off before the 100^th New Zealand Open next week, Fox will fly to Naucalpan, Mexico City, after gaining a place in the field following the withdrawal of Andrew Putnam.

The WGC-Mexico Championship has a prize pool of AU$14.3 million and Fox is currently rushing to the Club de Golf Chapultepec to prepare for the event which starts early on Friday morning Australian time.

Fox is coming off a breakthrough victory with his first European Tour title at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth on Sunday night which elevated him to number 66 in the world.

He will be aiming to carry this momentum to Mexico where he tees it up next to some of world golf’s biggest stars.

The 72-man field features the likes of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Phil Mickelson.

With the WGC event offering great prize money, no cut and vital world ranking points ahead of the 2019 major championships where the top 50 players in the world gain automatic entry, the opportunity for the world number 66 was too big to miss.

Fox will immediately return for the 100^th New Zealand Open at the conclusion of the Mexico Championship where he stands as a favourite back on home soil.

It shapes as the last piece of the puzzle for Ryan Fox to join world golf’s elite but first the 32-year-old Kiwi needs to rewrite his wedding speech.

A two-time winner on both the Australasian and Challenge Tour, Fox broke through for his first European Tour title with a commanding win over Spain’s Adrian Otaegui in the final of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth tournament at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.

Despite virtually zero experience of match play as a professional, he didn’t lose one of the 25 holes that he played on Sunday, edging past Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond after a first-round bye and then accounting for Kristoffer Reitan and Paul Dunne on his way to the final.

Otaegui – unbeaten in 12 matches in his two previous European Tour wins – defeated Daniel Gale, Per Langfors, Min Woo Lee and Scott Vincent before running into a rampant Fox in the final.

A par was enough for Fox to claim the first hole and when he followed it with birdies at the next two had a 3-up lead with just three holes to play. He needed just one more, halving the par-4 fourth hole in pars to claim a 3&2 win.

The win brings with it guaranteed status on the European Tour through until the end of the 2020 season and a move up to 11th in the Race to Dubai standings but in a warning to those ahead of him on the world rankings, most importantly a confidence boost that he has what it takes to beat the world’s best.

“It felt like it’s been really close. It’s almost relief now that it’s happened,” said Fox, who was denied the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open last year in a playoff against Russell Knox.

“In Ireland I did everything right and just had someone do something incredible on me and I knew if I was in that situation again I’d feel as comfortable as I could. I definitely felt comfortable out there most of the day.

“I’m sure it might be different coming down the stretch in a stroke play tournament trying to win but this will certainly free things up for the rest of the year. I can go on feeling confident.

“If I play well I feel like I can compete with anyone in the world and I think that’s a pretty dangerous place to be.”

Otaegui took 102 starts before he won his first European Tour event in 2017 and has no doubt that Fox has the game to climb much higher in the world rankings.

“He’s a very good player obviously. He’s been in contention in many events,” said Otaegui, who moved up to 28th in the Race to Dubai standings.

“Obviously runner-up at the Rolex Series last year and he’s got great potential.

“I’m sure he’ll do very well in the next tournaments.”

A fishing trip planned for Monday that has been already been postponed by one day means Fox will not know how much he has moved from No.85 on the world rankings until late on Tuesday but he will be significantly closer to achieving one of his goals for 2019.

“It’s probably going to help my world ranking, it’s going to get closer to top-50,” he said.

“That’s where we all strive to be. You get into the majors and the WGCs. That was a goal at the start of the year and it’s a goal that should be a fair bit closer now.

“I don’t know what the goals will be going forward. New Zealand Open, I’ve got a few weeks off after that but I’m sure over the next few weeks I’ll get a chance to sit down and rethink everything and set goals for the rest of the year.”

Fox’s last win was the Challenge Tour’s Tayto Northern Ireland Open in July 2016, the timing of his latest win coming with only one slight downside.

Booked in to marry long-time partner Anneke the week after the New Zealand Open, Fox’s opening gag about not giving a winner’s speech for a long time now in need of a rewrite.

“It’s been 10 years in the making, getting married, and it’s actually killed one of my speech jokes,” Fox said.

“I was looking at running my speech as a golf speech and say that I hadn’t done one for a while.

“My mates were giving me a bit of stick about that but they can’t get me with that anymore which is nice.

“I’ve got some practice kissing the trophy too which was nice.”

Team Australia has got down to business at the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf with Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith finalising their strategy for the week.

Combining to represent Australia for the first time, Leishman and Smith enter as strong contenders to win the title on home soil.

“It’s the second time I’ve done it.  Obviously last World Cup in 2016 we (partnered with Adam Scott) had a lot of fun,” said Leishman.

“It wasn’t the result we were after, but it’s nice to be back here in Melbourne and representing our country.  Hopefully, we can play well and do everyone proud.”

While Smith, who makes his World Cup debut added, “It’s a great location, great golf course.  We’ve been out and played all 18 now, so the course is in amazing condition and I think it should be a good week for everyone.”

Itching to get out on course, Leishman and Smith played nine holes on Monday afternoon and were back at work early this morning.

Having reacquainted themselves with the Metropolitan layout, the duo believes they have crafted a strong strategy to ensure victory on Sunday afternoon.

“After about seven or eight holes yesterday, it was pretty clear which holes I wanted to tee off and which holes I knew that went left to right, right to left.  It was a pretty easy decision,” said Leishman.

“I think the holes are going to set up pretty well for us.  We still have to play very well, hit good shots, but we’re not going to be able to blame uncomfortable tee shots or anything.”

Giving Team Australia some inside knowledge on his home club was Victorian amateur David Micheluzzi who finished tied fifth and low amateur at the Emirates Australian Open last week.

“It’s great of him (Micheluzzi) to come out.  Obviously he’s a great player and played very well last week,” said Leishman.

“There’s a few holes that look a lot narrower off the tee than what they actually are and shots into the greens that look very narrow just because of the positioning of bunkers, and then when you get up there they’re really wide.

“He helped us with that, just showing us where’s fine, where’s not fine.  Yeah, it was good of him to come out and hopefully that will pay off at the end of the week.”

With Smith, who is just three years Micheluzzi’s senior, adding; “He kind of kept out of the way, but kind of gave his information.  It was actually quite helpful.

“A couple of those tee shots and hitting them into trees and knowing where to land them, it was pretty good.”

Team Australia will be hoping to get off to a strong start in the four ball, when they are paired with Team USA and tee off at 11.35am on Thursday.

Fun will be the key for Team New Zealand at the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf as Ryan Fox and Danny Lee reunite to represent their country.

The Kiwi duo first combined at the 2016 staging of the tournament and will team up again at The Metropolitan Golf Club.

Ranked 86^th in the world, Fox was the highest placed New Zealander on the Official World Golf Ranking and selected Lee to partner him – a role reversal on 2016.

“The Sandbelt is world renowned and Metropolitan is a fantastic golf course. The opportunity to represent New Zealand again and play in the World Cup is something very special that I am looking forward to,” Fox said.

“I grew up in a very sporting family and representing New Zealand was the highest honour. Golf doesn’t give you many opportunities to do it, especially at a professional level, so the Olympic Games and the World Cup are really the only two events you get to play for your country.

Fox will be joined by 28-year-old Lee, who is coming off a solo-second result at the Mayakoba Golf Classic after finishing one stroke back of fellow World Cup of Golf competitor Matt Kuchar. Lee, a PGA TOUR winner and member of the 2015 Presidents Cup International Team will bring a bevy of confidence and experience to Team New Zealand.

“It was an easy decision to pick Danny; he is a world-class player competing on the PGA TOUR,” Fox said. “I also wanted to return the favour; he picked me a couple of years ago so it was nice to be in a position to reciprocate. He is a good mate of mine and I am looking forward to catching up with him.”

In 2016 Fox had just completed his first full season on the European Challenge Tour. This year he returns to the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf a much more experienced player having played two full seasons on the European Tour where he is currently 18^th on the Race to Dubai.

“It has been a nice progression the last few years; from the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia to OneAsia then the Challenge Tour and now the European Tour. Everything has been getting a little bit better each year, a bit more consistent and that is what you want to see year in and year out, that there have been improvements,” added Fox.

“The good thing is getting used to competing with the top guys in the world every week in Europe. You get a little taste of that playing on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, especially in the Aussie PGA and Aussie Open, a few of the top guys come down. But you go over to Europe and you have those guys playing most weeks, throw in a couple of majors and World Golf Championships events and you build that experience.

“I have been lucky enough to do that the last couple of years. I now feel more comfortable at that level than I was two years ago playing the World Cup so hopefully that puts me in good stead this year.”

The last time Metropolitan Golf Course hosted a professional golf tournament was the 2012 Australian Masters. Fox and American Kyle Stanley are the only current World Cup players that competed that year.

While Fox has good memories of the course conditions, he didn’t have much success on the layout.

“My lasting memory of the course is how good the conditions were,” Fox said. “I missed the cut there unfortunately but I actually played with the eventual winner Nick Cullen in the first couple of rounds. So I have at least half an idea on how to play it after watching him.”

Armed with that knowledge, Fox believes that he and Lee will have a better idea on how to combine as a team their second time around.

“We can learn a little bit from last time. In the four-ball, I think I played the course a little bit too aggressively. Sandbelt courses are ones you can’t take on all the time. Often having two balls in play is more important than one guy taking an aggressive line or the wrong club off the tee and potentially having one ball out of play and putting the other guy under added pressure.

“Having played foursomes together we know each other’s games and know what tee shots work for each other. So hopefully we can develop a pretty good strategy to play Metro, correctly select what holes we tee off on and have a little bit of fun, you need that in foursomes, it’s a tough format to play.

Fox, who is renowned for his power and length off the tee, has noticed plenty of differences and consistencies between his game and Lee’s. “I think we play a very different style of game. Danny is very, very consistent and very straight off the tee. I think we are similar in the way we both like to play aggressively and take on flags; I think that is a good thing.

“But in the way we do it, Danny hits it point-to-point where as I probably hit it a little more crooked but a little farther sometimes. Hopefully we complement each other well as a team and have a bit of fun.

“Danny has a great sense of humour and we get along well on and off the golf course and I think that is more important than how our golf games gel together.”

The ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf will be played at The Metropolitan Golf Club from 22-25 November.

Kiwi Ryan Fox will use the lessons he learned from a disappointing end to his 2017 season to maintain the momentum he has generated this year and push for his maiden win on the European Tour.

Ranked 11th on the Race to Dubai heading into this weekend’s KLM Open at The Dutch in The Netherlands, Fox is almost certain to surpass his performance from 12 months ago where he ended the year in 34th position to retain his card.

His goal to better that this year is essentially already achieved with nine events still to play but the other target for 2018 – a maiden win on the main tour – has remained tantalisingly out of reach.

Successive bombs by Scotland’s Russell Knox on the 18th hole was all that stood in the way of Fox claiming the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in July but he hopes a more carefully managed schedule will present further opportunities in the coming months.

In the wake of his tie for 27th at the US PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club – his best finish in a major to date – Fox spent three weeks home in New Zealand and after resuming last week at the Omega European Masters is ready to finish the year strongly.

“Last year I probably played a bit too much,” conceded Fox, who didn’t finish better than tied for 28th in the eight events he played following the European Masters.

“I chased it through the middle of the year and played great but when I got to the back-end of the year I was knackered and didn’t play well at the big events at the end of the year.

“I’ve learned from that this year. When I qualified for majors I managed to take weeks off around them so I wasn’t adding an event to the schedule.

“At the start of the year I wasn’t in the majors so they feel like a bonus event.

“I did the same thing last year and I think I played 31 events which is probably three or four too many by the end of the year.

“I’ve learned from that this year. I took three weeks off after the PGA, went home and had a holiday and met my little nephew, did a little bit of work with my coach Marcus Wheelhouse but the rest was catching up with friends and family and doing a little bit of fishing as well.”

After graduating from the Challenge Tour to the European Tour in 2017, Fox played 29 events and amassed E1,078,689 in prize money to easily retain his status, a three-week stretch where he was top 10 at the French, Irish and Scottish Opens the cornerstone of his rookie season.

In 18 events to date in 2018 he has missed just two cuts, played all of the majors except The Masters and established himself among the game’s elite.

The 31-year-old’s earnings for the year stand at E1,415,379 and forced him to re-adjust one of the two goals he set for himself.

“At the start of the year the two main goals were to finish higher up on the Order of Merit than I did last year and to win,” Fox explained.

“I think I will comfortably beat last year’s position on the Order of Merit so I can say that goal’s ticked off. I’ve now reset that and the main goal is to try and finish in the top-20.

“That’s the one you get some exemptions into events next year from and I’m in a pretty good position to do that.

“I’ve still got to play some pretty decent golf at the end of the year to make sure that I can achieve that.

“I obviously haven’t won yet so that’s another goal I’d really like to tick off before the end of the year.”

Of the nine events still to play on the European Tour this year Fox will miss only the Andulucia Valderrama Masters next month.

Although his results last year might indicate otherwise, he believes the golf courses this week and next at the Portugal Masters both provide opportunities to tick off that second goal he is chasing.

“I enjoy the courses both at KLM and also Portugal,” Fox said.

“I didn’t play particularly well at either of them last year but I felt like they were golf courses that work quite well for my game.

“I’ll play the British Masters and Dunhill Links after the Ryder Cup, skip Valderrama and then play the finals series.

“After that there’s the World Cup of Golf in Melbourne, the Aussie PGA on the Gold Coast and then that’s me done for the year.”

Joining Fox in the field at the KLM Open is fellow Kiwi Josh Geary along with Aussies Wade Ormsby, Sam Brazel, Scott Hend, Jason Norris, Brett Rumford, Lucas Herbert, Andrew Dodt, Jason Scrivener, Adam Bland and Nick Cullen.

Scrivener was the best performed Aussie last year with a top-20 finish while Hend was tied for fourth two years ago, highlighted by a third round of 64.

The Challenge Tour is at the Zhailjau Golf Resort this week for the Kazakhstan Open where Dimi Papadatos and Jack Munro will fly the Australian flag.

Ryan Fox carded a 5-under 67 to take the first round lead at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open hosted by the Rory Foundation – the fourth Rolex Series event of the season – with Padraig Harrington, Lee Westwood and Danny Willett among those a shot back.

The New Zealander, who showed his class on links courses last year with consecutive fourth-placed finishes at Royal Portstewart and Dundonald Links, carded six birdies and one bogey to sit one ahead of a chasing pack which includes three-time Major winner Harrington, 2016 Masters Champion Willett and 23-time European Tour winner Westwood.

The long hitting Kiwi opted to use his driver around Ballyliffin Golf Club, an unusual tactic for links golf.

“I hit driver a lot, and there are a lot of patches of rough. I drove it nicely. I think I probably only hit five or six fairways, but missed them in the right places and hit a lot of good drives that just ran through fairways so I gave myself a lot of chances,” said Fox.

“We took the same theory with this event last year with the rough down and it worked. Links golf can be kind of funny sometimes. You get penalised for just missing a fairway bunker or just missing it in the long stuff off the fairway but quite often where the crowds walk, it’s quite nice.

“I guess I just take it on now and sometimes a bit easier hacking a lob-wedge out of the rough than it is a seven-iron out of the fairways with some of the contours and the firmness.”

Off to a flying start, Fox has an eye on the prize on offer at the Irish Open, his first European Tour victory and a start in The Open.

“I’d love to be in The Open and Carnoustie is one of the best golf courses in the world I think and I’d love the chance to play there in an Open,” added Fox.

“As good a start as I can have, really, and hopefully three more rounds and if I can sneak in that top-5 like last year and get an Open spot, that would be great.”

Harrington, who holds the record for the most top-ten finishes in Dubai Duty Free Irish Open history with eight, chipped in for eagle on the par-five 17^th before making three birdies in four holes over the back nine to sign for a 68.

Joining Harrington on four under par after 18 holes are a French duo of Adrien Saddier and Matthieu Pavon, and an English trio Robert Rock, Ashley Chesters and Westwood, while tournament host Rory McIlroy sits three off the lead after carding a two under par first round of 70 at Ballyliffin Golf Club.

Grinding golf on a difficult course paid dividends for Ryan Fox who grabbed top Australasian honours at the European Tour’s Trophee Hassan II tournament in Morocco.

Fox signed for scores of 72-71-71-71 for a 3-under total for the week and outright 12^th position.

After a missed cut at last week’s Spanish Open it was an impressive fightback from the long hitting New Zealander who has played just three times since a third-place finish at the Maybank tournament in early February.

The Royal Dar Es Salam course proved a tricky proposition for the field over the course of the week with Alexander Levy’s 8-under winning total a testament to the difficult nature of scoring.

Only 21 players finished in red figures, Andrew Dodt among those to fall victim to the vagaries of the layout.

Several golfers over the course of the week found themselves unable to recover after a poor hole and Dodt was among their number with a disappointing 78 on Sunday.

Entering the final round 4-under and inside the top-10, his struggles began with a bogey at the first and improved little as he turned in 39 then amassed the same number on the inward half. He dropped 24 places down the leaderbaord for an eventual T32 finish.

Marcus Fraser moved the opposite direction on Sunday with his best score of the week, a 3-under 69 leapfrogging him 22 places up the leaderboard.

After managing just six birdies in total the first three rounds, Fraser found four on the final day to go with a bogey at the 17^th as he posted his best finish since the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth.

Fraser looks to be settling into the year after a lacklustre start to the season saw him miss four straight cuts before the Perth event.

Josh Geary is another who will be pleased with his week after making just his second cut since earning playing rights on the European Tour late last year.

Geary signed for scores of 74-73-73-73 for a 5-over total which was good for a share of 46^th.

Wade Ormsby was the last of the Australasians to qualify for the weekend but, like Dodt, started going backwards early and couldn’t recover.

A final round 80 was both disappointing and costly as he dropped 35 places down the standings to T52.

Jason Scrivener, Jack Munro, Brett Rumford, Sam Brazel and Adam Bland all missed the cut while Jason Norris withdrew after 15 holes of his second round for unknown reasons.

Following a standout rookie year on the European Tour, Ryan Fox gets his 2018 campaign underway in his home country at the REBEL Sport Masters from 11-14 January.

The familiar surrounds of the Wainui Golf Club is the perfect launching point for what will be Fox’s second full season on the European Tour, he joins fellow Auckland golfer Michael Hendry as the marquee players in the field.

“It’s good, I don’t get the chance to play too much at home and on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia especially so it’s definitely a nice way to start the year,” said Fox who is a two-time winner on the Tour.

“I played a lot of golf on this Tour both as an amateur and as a Professional and it feels like home playing in these tournaments. It’s nice to come back out and support the Tour especially when it’s in New Zealand. 

“I’ve played Wainui a few times; it’s a good test of golf. From the weather we’ve had it’s going to be fairly dry and play pretty firm and fast so it’ll be a pretty tricky test I think, especially if the wind gets up.”

While he and Hendry, two of the top-3 ranked Kiwi golfers in the Official World Golf Rankings at 123rd and 125th respectively, will no doubt attract most of the fanfare this week, Fox said there is plenty of up and coming local talent to keep an eye on.

New Zealanders Ryan Chisnall, Nick Voke and James Anstiss all make their Professional debut after gaining status on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia through Qualifying School in December.

“Those guys have been playing really well for New Zealand over the last few years as amateurs and the transition to being a Professional can be really hard so it’s good to see them get through Q-School and get a category to start with,” added Fox.

“I’m sure they’ll all be excited this week, they deserve to be out here because they’re good enough players so I’m sure New Zealanders will be following their careers and would like to see them do well.”

The REBEL Sport Masters coincides with the final stage of the Asian Tour Q-School in Thailand and with a number of ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Professionals competing there, a great opportunity presents itself for a young Pro to get the 2018 season off to flying start.

As well as the lion’s share of the AUD$100,000 in prize money, the winner this week also receives full status on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia for the remainder of 2018 and the 2019 season.

“It’s a really good chance to win for those guys, Mike (Hendry) and I will obviously be trying to win as well but I’m sure those guys will be looking to start their careers off really well and if they can get an exemption early, it takes a lot of the pressure off,” added Fox.

On his own form, Fox said he’s just about overcome a niggling shoulder complaint, the result of playing 30 Professional tournaments across the globe in 2017, by far his busiest season as a Professional.

“I played a lot more golf last year than any previous season and throwing in the travel on top of that it’s not suprising there’s a few niggles,” added Fox.

“It’s just a little carryover from last year and it’s started to sort itself out over the break, I’ve been getting some treatment and it’s feeling good this week.

“It’d be nice to start the year without it but I’ve still got a little bit of time to get it all sorted before Europe kicks off properly in April again.”

The REBEL Sport Masters will be played at Wainui Golf Club from 11-14 January, round one begins Thursday at 7:30am local time with Ryan Fox teeing off at 8:00am.

Entry to the tournament is free to the public.

Ryan Fox has capped off an impressive first year in Europe by finishing top Australasian in the final event of the season as well as the year-long Race to Dubai.

The long hitting New Zealander posted a final round of 3-under 69 at the Dubai World Tour Championship to climb to 8-under for the week and a share of 28^th in the 60-player field.

Fox graduated from the secondary Challenge Tour at the end of 2016 and wasted little time finding his feet on the main circuit to be 34^th in earnings for the season.

Five top-10 finishes in his 29 starts, three of them at the lucrative Rolex Series events, saw him bank more than €1 million, the only Australasian to pass the magical million mark.

Andrew Dodt was next best behind Fox in both earnings and at the final event, his final round 66 his best of the week and enough to see him move 15 places up the leaderboard to T36.

Dodt finished the season 10 places behind Fox on the Race to Dubai with €934,726, his best results coming at the Australian PGA Championship where he was second and the Scottish Open where he was T4.

Scott Hend followed a familiar pattern in 2017 and his play in Dubai was reflective of his overall game.

Capable of brilliance the equal of any in the world the Queenslander’s naturally aggressive style can also wreak havoc with his scorecard and that was the case on Sunday.

After opening with 66 to be among the leaders through 18 holes Hend posted pedestrian scores of 71-71 on Friday and Saturday to slip out of contention.

A bogey at the first hole Sunday set the scene and with two doubles and a second bogey over the opening nine it was clear the day would be a struggle.

Two bogeys and two birdies coming in saw him sign for a disappointing 78 though at 47^th on the Race to Dubai he can be pleased with his year overall.