…. Fatiha Betscher, Al Hamra GC, RAK
Kiwi powerhouse Ryan Fox is one round shy of becoming the first New Zealand-born golfer in 23-years to win wire-to-wire on the DP World Tour.
Kiwi Ryan Fox looking to join Michael Campbell as the first New Zealand born wire-to-wire winner on the DP World Tour. Cambo capturing the 1999 Johnnie Walker Classic when leading from start to finish. (Photo @TourMiss)
Fox is taking a whopping six-shot lead into the final round of the RAK Golf Classic in the UAE as he looks to join Michael Campbell as an all the way New Zealand winner after ‘Cambo’ led from start to finish to win the 1999 Johnnie Walker Classic in Taiwan.
Fox went into golf’s ‘moving day’ leading but three but daylight was soon a distant second when he birdied his opening four holes in a third day 63, his second nine-under score for the week, to double his lead from three to six shots at 19-under-par.
Fox is the son of legendary All Black Grant Fox, and while he’s won a dozen times in his career, including a co-sanctioned event in Perth, Australia, there’s a part of him still looking to make amends when Scot Russell Knox denied his victory at 2018 Irish Open at Ballyliffin.
The Auckland-born Fox had led on both day one and two and then set the clubhouse at 14-under on day four only to see Knox hole a curling birdie putt on 18 to tie Fox, and then in the play-off at the same hole, the Scot holed practically the same biride putt to win the premier Irish title.
“I have been in this position plenty of times, winning back home and in Australia, and around the Pacific, and the only other time I was in the lead was the Irish Open where I got done by Russell Knox holing a couple of absolute bombs on me”, he said smiling.
“I feel comfortable in the lead and while I am certainly going to be nervous, I just have to clear my head as everything is going well. All I need to do is get out of my own way”.
Four players – Scotland’s Scott Jamison (65), Poland’s Adrian Meronk (64), and the Spanish pair of Pablo Larrazabal (68) and Adri Arnaus (66).
This week is Jamieson’s fourth event in succession in a 12th straight DP World Tour season and he’s been a picture of consistency.
The Florida-based Jamieson started out last month going so close to victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship to finish T10th at Yas Links. He was just inside the top-30 a week later in Dubai and last just a place outside the top-20 in the first of the $2m Al Hamra double-header.
He said: “These four weeks have been really good to me and not since the 2012/2013 season winning the Nelson Mandela, along with a third a week later, and then the first week of the 2013 season, I had a second.
“I said that at the start of this year, the two Rolex Series events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai really got my attention, and I’ve always been a bit of a momentum player, so if I knew if I hit the ground running it was always going to be a good start to ’22 and it has.
“Golf’s such a funny game and it’s not guaranteed to happen, but I knew that my game was in a decent place and I just needed to make sure mentally I was ready to get going”.
“The good thing also having gone so close to winning in Abu Dhabi and now three weeks on, I still have plenty of adrenalin in the tank.
“I wasn’t that sharp on Thursday of this week but I dug deep to make the cut with a 66 and it just goes to show as you never know what is around the corner”.
