March 13, 2025 • 9 mins
Golfer Ryan Fox is on the search for consistency as he gets set to tee off at The Players Championship in Florida tomorrow morning.
The Kiwi has played in three tournaments so far in 2025 - finishing in a tie for 63rd in one, and missing the cut in the other two events.
Fox feels his play has been better than his scorecards, but knows the margins are small on the PGA Tour.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Wildegrave
from news Talk Zed.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be nineteen away from eight.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Time for some golf now. The fifth Major gets under way,
gets under way for Ryan Fox at five point forty
five tomorrow morning, and.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
He joins us now to discuss that and his form
and so on and so forth. So let's get amongst
Ryan Fox. Welcome mate.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hey, Darcy, I trust you're well and are looking forward
to actually heading a cartline this time around at the TPC.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
She's been a pretty rough last couple of tournaments for you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, I mean rough in terms of not playing the weekend.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The golf's actually been okay, to be honest, a little
frustrating more than anything else. You know, I missed the
last two cuts by one At two I've been two
under and four under, which is certainly not bad golf
by any stretch, just not quite good enough. And you
know the PG two is tough in that regard, and
ye're hoping, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Just to score a little better this week. The golf
game feels like it's in pretty good shape.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
When you get home after missing by one shot, do
you just go back over the previous thirty six holes
going if only, if only and identify it maybe where
it fell apartment?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Is that even helpful? Yes?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And no. I mean, look, it's it's pretty easy to
find a shot, that's for sure. And to be honest,
the last couple of weeks for me have been purely
the putter. You know, maybe not quite hit the ball
as close as I would have liked in this and
that impacted the scoring a little bit. But you know,
you know, both weeks, I sort of I look down
the stretch and go, well, you know, there's there's three
(01:44):
or four parts inside ten feet there and one of
those goes in. And I'm playing the weekend, and you know,
the week at Cognizant, a guy shot ahead and me
made the cut on the number and then won the tournament.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So the margins are pretty small in this game.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And you know, just got to use the old cliche
of stay patient, let it come, and you know, the
golf games there just kind of need to put it together.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
We all know all about about what goes on TPC
to massive event. It's the Craig Perks especial if you will.
I don't know where you were when that happened, but
I know I was watching it, it.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Blew me away.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Do you still carry that around with you? That that
fantastic time that Perks had there?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, I remember watching it live back at home.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Was it two thousand and two? I think for memory? Yeah,
Like one of the most incredible finishes in history, wasn't it?
Three chippins in a row to finish, to finish and
one of probably them, well, if not the most iconic
finish in golf with sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, there especially seventeen,
(02:44):
So it'd be nice to replicate that this year. There's
just one hundred and forty three other pretty good golfers
trying to do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, finishing, just look that up.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Actually, my memory's not got eagle birdie part win by
two shots.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I mean that is stunting. That is nerves of steel,
isn't it. If you found yourself a position like.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
That before, you just got to hang on there and
what you've applied to actually make that work.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Right, Not at saw Grass specifically, but like you know,
like went with a couple of years ago. It was
kind of like that that, you know, I had to
do some something pretty good coming down the stretch and
birdied your few holes coming down and birdied eighteen to win,
which is kind of a nice thing to be able
to do. It was certainly a little probably a little
(03:32):
easier finish. It went worth than it is at saw
Grass a whole a little less water involved.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
But yeah, it's you know, that's what you kind of
dream of doing.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
You know, it's it's pretty hard to finish eagle birdy
part or win a golf tournament, but you know, just
getting a chance to do that down the stretch is
what you what you want to do. And yeah, it's
it's it's a pretty crazy finish, especially in such an
event like that to get it done. So, as I said,
I'd quite like to try to replicate something like that
this week.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
You're teeing off what I think five point forty five
tomorrow morning, New zeal in time.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Who are your group to it? And what about the
strength of this field. It's not a weak point, is there.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
No, it's it's regarded as the fifth Major for a reason.
It's probably the strongest field in golf. You know, it's
the top fifty in the world and and the PGA
Tour basically, so you know, it's it's as strong as
any major field. It's yeah, you've there's there's no hiding
out there. You've got to got to had a lot
(04:32):
of good shots. It's a tough golf course. Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
They set it up like a major. The roughs up
this week. Yeah, it's good. I'm playing with Sammy Valamaki
who played on the DP World Tour over the last
couple of years.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I know Sammy well and the guy Doug.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Gim who I've I've met a couple of times and
he's got an aussy guy on the bag. So it
should be a nice group for the first couple of days.
Where first off in the afternoon on Friday, which pace
the play should be quite nice. Obviously I like playing fast,
so you're not having anyone in front of us for
nine holes will be nice. And we're putting the pins
out on Friday morning and hopefully it's not too cold
(05:14):
when we're out there. But it's a forecast looks really
really good for the weekend. You're looking forward to getting
out there and giving it a crack.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Playing partners, you can't choose who you play with. But
now instrumental is the crew. The obviously the caddies and
the golfers that you play with. You it's you against
the course, it's not you versus them, but they must
have some influence on what you do.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Or yeah, look it's it's some guys. It doesn't really
matter either way. Some guy like probably me, I like
having a chat on the golf course. So having someone
I know or having someone I can I can talk to,
it's certainly helpful. And I think probably the biggest thing
is you just you just want a nice vibe in
(05:58):
the group, and that's generally guys you know, playing good
and like it sounds weird because you're competing against them,
but you know, also, yeah, you're kind of only directly
competing on a Sunday afternoon trying to win the tournament.
That the first few days you're just kind of putting
yourself in position, and it's it's nice to have a
(06:18):
group where everyone's hitting good shots and you can kind
of feed off each other. So, you know, hopefully that's
the case for us over the first couple of days
and we can be towards that pointing end of the
field on Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Familiarity breeds content, but possibly not at major events like this.
The more you've been there, the more comfortable you feel,
how many times you actually hit balls around there own.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
This is my third time at the Players, so I
missed the cut last year. So I think I've played
six tournament rounds around there and probably another like three
or four, maybe four or five more in practice. The
good thing about the golf course is not it's it's
right in front of you. You've got to hit really
good shots. But I think the whole idea behind the
(07:05):
golf course when Peak Die designed it was to make
you hit every club in your bag, and it certainly
does that. You know, there is some birdie chances out there,
there is some wedges you can hit in the par
fives are gettable, although they seem to have pushed a
few te's back this year, especially on the par fives,
(07:25):
And it's just a great test of golf. You can
see how someone goes out there and shoots eight under,
and you can also see with all the trouble and
the long rough and the firm and fast greens, he
someone can go up there and shoot eighty. And I
think it's one of the purest tests of golf. In
a tournament you can get you.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Said your pata hasn't been doing you many favors, but
maybe your short game have not been getting close enough
to the pin. But out of all the clubs that
you're going to have to use across the weekend because
you aren't going to hit the cart, trust me on
this one. Is there a club that you're particularly looking
forward to or one that maybe you're a bit like, Ah,
I don't really want to play this shot, I don't
want to use the stick. No.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I've made a couple of changes going into this week.
I've had a new drive in the bag for a
couple of weeks and that's going really well, So I'm
quite looking forward to that. Tweaked a couple of things
in my eyes, lying or wise and loft wise, just
to try to help out with that proximity to hold,
and it's that's been going really good in practice, so
(08:26):
I'm kind of looking forward to to testing that that
out in the tournament over the next few days. And
I went back to an old part of that. I've
had a lot of success with.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
The one I want.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I went with with the one I wanted donehill Worth
a couple of years ago. So you know, just sometimes
with the part of changes as good as a holiday,
you know, just looking down at something different just just
kind of makes you feel a little different, maybe get
some confidence back in it. And you know, I figured
going back to something that I've had success with, you.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Know, might might change the vibes a little bit in
that regard.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
And again that's gone really well in practice, so kind
of looking forward to to how seeing how that goes
in the tournament, and you know, to be honest, everything's
felt really good the last couple of days and tournament
golf was a little bit different, but yeah, it's been
close to the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It's certainly not.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Missing a couple of cuts by shots, nothing to be
too worried about.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
It's not like the golf games miles away.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So hopefully this is the week that it all kind
of clicks and you can put four good rounds together.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And whatever you do, don't call your driver, Darcy, that's
just a recipe for disaster. Looking forward to watching you
compete this weekend. Ryan Fox, thanks so much for your time.
Really enjoy the fact you join us here on News
Talk CEB. You got on your pal
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Cheers, Darcy, thanks for having me for more from Sports
Talk listen live to news talks it'd be from seven
pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Wildegrave
from news Talk Zed.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be nineteen away from eight.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Time for some golf now. The fifth Major gets under way,
gets under way for Ryan Fox at five point forty
five tomorrow morning, and.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
He joins us now to discuss that and his form
and so on and so forth. So let's get amongst
Ryan Fox. Welcome mate.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Hey, Darcy, I trust you're well and are looking forward
to actually heading a cartline this time around at the TPC.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
She's been a pretty rough last couple of tournaments for you.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, I mean rough in terms of not playing the weekend.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The golf's actually been okay, to be honest, a little
frustrating more than anything else. You know, I missed the
last two cuts by one At two I've been two
under and four under, which is certainly not bad golf
by any stretch, just not quite good enough. And you
know the PG two is tough in that regard, and
ye're hoping, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Just to score a little better this week. The golf
game feels like it's in pretty good shape.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
When you get home after missing by one shot, do
you just go back over the previous thirty six holes
going if only, if only and identify it maybe where
it fell apartment?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Is that even helpful? Yes?
Speaker 1 (01:23):
And no. I mean, look, it's it's pretty easy to
find a shot, that's for sure. And to be honest,
the last couple of weeks for me have been purely
the putter. You know, maybe not quite hit the ball
as close as I would have liked in this and
that impacted the scoring a little bit. But you know,
you know, both weeks, I sort of I look down
the stretch and go, well, you know, there's there's three
(01:44):
or four parts inside ten feet there and one of
those goes in. And I'm playing the weekend, and you know,
the week at Cognizant, a guy shot ahead and me
made the cut on the number and then won the tournament.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So the margins are pretty small in this game.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And you know, just got to use the old cliche
of stay patient, let it come, and you know, the
golf games there just kind of need to put it together.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
We all know all about about what goes on TPC
to massive event. It's the Craig Perks especial if you will.
I don't know where you were when that happened, but
I know I was watching it, it.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Blew me away.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Do you still carry that around with you? That that
fantastic time that Perks had there?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, I remember watching it live back at home.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Was it two thousand and two? I think for memory? Yeah,
Like one of the most incredible finishes in history, wasn't it?
Three chippins in a row to finish, to finish and
one of probably them, well, if not the most iconic
finish in golf with sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, there especially seventeen,
(02:44):
So it'd be nice to replicate that this year. There's
just one hundred and forty three other pretty good golfers
trying to do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah, finishing, just look that up.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Actually, my memory's not got eagle birdie part win by
two shots.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I mean that is stunting. That is nerves of steel,
isn't it. If you found yourself a position like.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
That before, you just got to hang on there and
what you've applied to actually make that work.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Right, Not at saw Grass specifically, but like you know,
like went with a couple of years ago. It was
kind of like that that, you know, I had to
do some something pretty good coming down the stretch and
birdied your few holes coming down and birdied eighteen to win,
which is kind of a nice thing to be able
to do. It was certainly a little probably a little
(03:32):
easier finish. It went worth than it is at saw
Grass a whole a little less water involved.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
But yeah, it's you know, that's what you kind of
dream of doing.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
You know, it's it's pretty hard to finish eagle birdy
part or win a golf tournament, but you know, just
getting a chance to do that down the stretch is
what you what you want to do. And yeah, it's
it's it's a pretty crazy finish, especially in such an
event like that to get it done. So, as I said,
I'd quite like to try to replicate something like that
this week.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
You're teeing off what I think five point forty five
tomorrow morning, New zeal in time.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Who are your group to it? And what about the
strength of this field. It's not a weak point, is there.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
No, it's it's regarded as the fifth Major for a reason.
It's probably the strongest field in golf. You know, it's
the top fifty in the world and and the PGA
Tour basically, so you know, it's it's as strong as
any major field. It's yeah, you've there's there's no hiding
out there. You've got to got to had a lot
(04:32):
of good shots. It's a tough golf course. Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
They set it up like a major. The roughs up
this week. Yeah, it's good. I'm playing with Sammy Valamaki
who played on the DP World Tour over the last
couple of years.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I know Sammy well and the guy Doug.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Gim who I've I've met a couple of times and
he's got an aussy guy on the bag. So it
should be a nice group for the first couple of days.
Where first off in the afternoon on Friday, which pace
the play should be quite nice. Obviously I like playing fast,
so you're not having anyone in front of us for
nine holes will be nice. And we're putting the pins
out on Friday morning and hopefully it's not too cold
(05:14):
when we're out there. But it's a forecast looks really
really good for the weekend. You're looking forward to getting
out there and giving it a crack.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Playing partners, you can't choose who you play with. But
now instrumental is the crew. The obviously the caddies and
the golfers that you play with. You it's you against
the course, it's not you versus them, but they must
have some influence on what you do.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Or yeah, look it's it's some guys. It doesn't really
matter either way. Some guy like probably me, I like
having a chat on the golf course. So having someone
I know or having someone I can I can talk to,
it's certainly helpful. And I think probably the biggest thing
is you just you just want a nice vibe in
(05:58):
the group, and that's generally guys you know, playing good
and like it sounds weird because you're competing against them,
but you know, also, yeah, you're kind of only directly
competing on a Sunday afternoon trying to win the tournament.
That the first few days you're just kind of putting
yourself in position, and it's it's nice to have a
(06:18):
group where everyone's hitting good shots and you can kind
of feed off each other. So, you know, hopefully that's
the case for us over the first couple of days
and we can be towards that pointing end of the
field on Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Familiarity breeds content, but possibly not at major events like this.
The more you've been there, the more comfortable you feel,
how many times you actually hit balls around there own.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
This is my third time at the Players, so I
missed the cut last year. So I think I've played
six tournament rounds around there and probably another like three
or four, maybe four or five more in practice. The
good thing about the golf course is not it's it's
right in front of you. You've got to hit really
good shots. But I think the whole idea behind the
(07:05):
golf course when Peak Die designed it was to make
you hit every club in your bag, and it certainly
does that. You know, there is some birdie chances out there,
there is some wedges you can hit in the par
fives are gettable, although they seem to have pushed a
few te's back this year, especially on the par fives,
(07:25):
And it's just a great test of golf. You can
see how someone goes out there and shoots eight under,
and you can also see with all the trouble and
the long rough and the firm and fast greens, he
someone can go up there and shoot eighty. And I
think it's one of the purest tests of golf. In
a tournament you can get you.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Said your pata hasn't been doing you many favors, but
maybe your short game have not been getting close enough
to the pin. But out of all the clubs that
you're going to have to use across the weekend because
you aren't going to hit the cart, trust me on
this one. Is there a club that you're particularly looking
forward to or one that maybe you're a bit like, Ah,
I don't really want to play this shot, I don't
want to use the stick. No.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I've made a couple of changes going into this week.
I've had a new drive in the bag for a
couple of weeks and that's going really well, So I'm
quite looking forward to that. Tweaked a couple of things
in my eyes, lying or wise and loft wise, just
to try to help out with that proximity to hold,
and it's that's been going really good in practice, so
(08:26):
I'm kind of looking forward to to testing that that
out in the tournament over the next few days. And
I went back to an old part of that. I've
had a lot of success with.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
The one I want.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I went with with the one I wanted donehill Worth
a couple of years ago. So you know, just sometimes
with the part of changes as good as a holiday,
you know, just looking down at something different just just
kind of makes you feel a little different, maybe get
some confidence back in it. And you know, I figured
going back to something that I've had success with, you.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Know, might might change the vibes a little bit in
that regard.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
And again that's gone really well in practice, so kind
of looking forward to to how seeing how that goes
in the tournament, and you know, to be honest, everything's
felt really good the last couple of days and tournament
golf was a little bit different, but yeah, it's been
close to the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
It's certainly not.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Missing a couple of cuts by shots, nothing to be
too worried about.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
It's not like the golf games miles away.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
So hopefully this is the week that it all kind
of clicks and you can put four good rounds together.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And whatever you do, don't call your driver, Darcy, that's
just a recipe for disaster. Looking forward to watching you
compete this weekend. Ryan Fox, thanks so much for your time.
Really enjoy the fact you join us here on News
Talk CEB. You got on your pal
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Cheers, Darcy, thanks for having me for more from Sports
Talk listen live to news talks it'd be from seven
pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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