… Fatiha Betscher, Al Hamra GC, RAK
Big-hitting Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox equalled the championship course record with 10 birdies in a nine-under-par 63 on day one of the inaugural Ras Al Khamiah Classic on the stunning Al Hamra course.
Fox, 35, took full advantage of the glorious scoring condtions to tie the championship low set by China No. 1 Haotong Li last Sunday in the inaugural Ral Al Khamiah Championship by Phoenix Capital on the same Al Hamra club coure.
Better still for Fox as he had been battling a back complaint last week but seemed to show no ill-effects in posting his lowest DP World Tour career round.
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“I’m very happy, it was probably the only bad drive I hit all day on nine and left myself in a pretty bad place, but my bunker play was really solid all day”, said Fox.
“I took advantage of that and it was nice to see some putts go in today as well. “I really enjoyed it, it’s the first time I’ve shot 63 out here on this Tour. I’ve shot some pretty low scores at home but struggled to bring that out here at times. It was nice to get in the zone, I just felt like I had control of the golf ball.
“I probably need to throw a couple of thanks out too, I struggled last week here with my back and I have my physio out here, and the Tour physio has helped me out over the weekend and I feel 100% this week which was nice”.
Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia is in second place with a 65 while nine players share second at six-under including Scotland’s David Drysdale, who had just 27 putts in his round thanks to a slight adjustment to his Odyssey putter.
“I found I was rolling the ball well but for the first two to three feet of the strike, the ball was in the air so we bent the putter slightly to reduce the loft and that is so much better”, said Drysdale and still chasing a first Tour success.
“My putting was half average for these first three weeks, and I haven’t done anything on the greens so hopefully this could be a big turnaround in my putting.
“Six-under is a good start and I’m very happy. It’s a good foundation and I can build on that”.
