After a four-under opening round, the 39-year-old Kiwi carded a two-under 68 in his second round to be tied for 11th. While he dropped a couple of spots on the leaderboard, he remained in the hunt, four shots off the lead held by American Ryan Gerard and Norwegian Viktor Hovland.
For the second round in a row, Fox opened with a bogey, but added three birdies through the rest of the front nine to sit two-under at the turn. He added two bogeys and two birdies on the back nine to finish the round at two-under, including a birdie on the par-five
In such a small field, a good or a bad round can go a long way in changing positions. American Cameron Young jumped 22 spots on the leaderboard after an eight-under second round, while first-round leader Min Woo Lee fell 14 spots with a three-over second round.
Through two rounds, every player is under par aside from Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, who struggled to a six-over 76 in his second round.
Fox will play alongside American Akshay Bhatia for his third round, which gets underway at 5.37am NZT on Sunday.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.