{"id":478362,"date":"2026-02-16T10:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/478362\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:59:12","slug":"function-over-form-with-ryan-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/478362\/","title":{"rendered":"Function over form with Ryan Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"

It doesn\u2019t have to look pretty to win<\/p>\n

IN THE BEGINNING<\/p>\n

My golf swing originally started from reading that Tiger Woods book, How I Play Golf.<\/p>\n

I know it doesn\u2019t look anything like it, but that\u2019s how it started. I never had any lessons as a teenager. I literally just read that book, whacked some golf balls around in the backyard, and I didn\u2019t take golf overly seriously at that point.<\/p>\n

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Martin Hunter \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

I got my first proper lessons around the age of 18 when I started taking golf seriously. I\u2019ve been through a few different coaches since then, but I\u2019ve settled on Marcus Wheelhouse back home in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been working with Marcus basically since I turned pro, since about 2012 and we\u2019ve always worked on function over form.<\/p>\n

My golf swing is not technically perfect by any stretch. It certainly doesn\u2019t look pretty, I know that.<\/p>\n

We work really hard on keeping the club in front of me, controlling the face, turning hard through the ball and having control of the golf ball. For the most part, I feel like we\u2019ve achieved that over the last few years especially.<\/p>\n

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Jared C Tilton \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

THE EVOLUTION<\/p>\n

My swing used to be quite a bit more behind me, with a flatter swing, and I used to hook the ball a bit, for want of a better term.<\/p>\n

When I first started working with Marcus, we worked hard on getting the club more in front of me and hitting more of a fade as a stock shot. That got the club more upright and my hands a lot higher than they were.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019s changed too much in the last few years.<\/p>\n

I also did quite a bit of work with Jamie Gough while I was in Europe for a few years, which was really good. I made big strides under Jamie. He and Marcus would work in tandem, Jamie on tour and Marcus back in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

It was a lot of the same principles, maybe set slightly differently, but both wanted the same thing: club in front of me, plenty of room, space and time to hit the ball, with a stock shot being a little fade.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what I\u2019ve played with and played well with over the last four or five years.<\/p>\n

I finished up with Jamie last year, purely because he\u2019s Europe-based and I was playing predominantly in the States, so it didn\u2019t really work logistically. But I really appreciate everything he did for me.<\/p>\n

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Minas Panagiotakis \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

THE STRUGGLES ARE REAL<\/p>\n

The biggest struggle I had was in 2024, and that was due to injury. I tore the labrum in my right hip.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always gone down and back, but I\u2019ve also always been good at holding my right hip and spine angle and getting through the ball well. Even though I\u2019m down and back, I could still hold the face nicely.<\/p>\n

With the torn labrum, I couldn\u2019t hold that angle in my right hip. I basically fired early, got up and out of the shot, and missed it right routinely for most of the year.<\/p>\n

The frustrating thing was that there wasn\u2019t really any pain. It just stopped working properly.<\/p>\n

It took a while to get that sorted, with rehab and a cortisone injection. At the beginning of 2025, a lot of the work was about getting rid of the bad habits I\u2019d picked up in 2024 and getting back to what I do best.<\/p>\n

I remember talking to Marcus and Jamie during 2024, with them wanting me to do certain things in the swing, and me saying, \u201cI can\u2019t. I don\u2019t know why, but I just can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In hindsight, obviously I couldn\u2019t do it because the labrum was torn.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, all of that\u2019s behind me now, and I feel like I\u2019m getting back to where I was swing-wise in 2022 and 2023, which were probably my two most consistent years.<\/p>\n

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Stuart Franklin \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

GAINING CONFIDENCE<\/p>\n

If you went through my phone, I don\u2019t have many videos of my swing. The only time I\u2019ll take one is if I don\u2019t have someone with me at a tournament and I want to send a video for feedback.<\/p>\n

Even then, I won\u2019t look at it myself most of the time. I\u2019ll get Dean, my caddie, to take the video, send it on and see what feedback I get.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m someone who gets confidence from the ball doing what I want it to do. I try to be as \u201cout there\u201d as possible rather than thinking about my swing or getting too technical.<\/p>\n

Obviously, it\u2019s not pretty, and I\u2019m not worried about hitting certain positions. I know there are some things I need to do well in the takeaway, the set-up and the feeling on the way down to get the swing working at its best, but I\u2019m certainly not worried about how it looks.<\/p>\n

CALORIE COUNTING GOES OUT THE WINDOW<\/p>\n

Fitness has become much more important over the last couple of years, especially after the injury, which was a bit of a scare. I\u2019d always been a bit hit and miss with it before.<\/p>\n

Tournament weeks are generally lighter than off weeks. In off weeks, I\u2019ll go to the gym four or five times. During tournament weeks, that drops to one or two sessions, plus my daily warm-up.<\/p>\n

Food is something I can definitely be better at. I like food a bit too much, and when you go somewhere like Dubai with so many great restaurants, it\u2019s easy to get carried away.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never been someone who counts calories or eats the same meals with exact portion sizes. But I\u2019m trying to get away from pizzas, burgers and chips the night before I play. They don\u2019t generally work very well.<\/p>\n

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Johnnie Izquierdo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

MY GO TO SHOT<\/p>\n

I like to fade it most of the time.<\/p>\n

With my irons, I don\u2019t mind working it both ways, mainly for yardage control. If you want a bit more distance, it\u2019s easier to draw it slightly and take some spin off. I tend to hit draws with the ball a bit further back in my stance, which flattens the flight and adds distance.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rare that I\u2019m trying to draw a driver. There aren\u2019t many holes where I stand there thinking I need to draw it or feel comfortable doing so. If I really have to hit a draw off the tee, I\u2019ll probably hit a three-wood because I\u2019m more comfortable with that.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, there aren\u2019t many holes where you\u2019re forced to draw a driver.<\/p>\n

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Richard Heathcote \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

FEELS VS REALS<\/p>\n

I spend a fair bit of time chatting with Karl Morris, who I\u2019ve worked with since about 2019. A lot of that is about being creative, creating shots and being more reactive on the golf course, rather than being internal and worried about the swing or where the ball might go.<\/p>\n

Every golfer fights that stuff. You\u2019ve got too much time to think, and it\u2019s easy to get stuck on, \u201cI need to feel this,\u201d or \u201cI need to set up like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, the swing is always about finding a good feeling rather than worrying about positions. I just need to find something that feels good.<\/p>\n

Often it only takes a couple of shots with that feeling to think, \u201cThat\u2019s it,\u201d and then you can have a good week with it.<\/p>\n

Most of the work with Karl is about finding something that works, focusing on a couple of mental things for the week, and sticking to that whether I\u2019m playing well or badly.<\/p>\n

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Andrew Redington \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

WHAT I HATE<\/p>\n

Trying to draw a driver brings both sides into play. I can block it if I don\u2019t turn it over, or I can get a bit handsy and hit a big hook. Neither of those tend to work very well.<\/p>\n

The miss I really don\u2019t like at the moment is right. I fought that all through last year and a bit of this year, and it was a product of the injury. When you see the same miss over and over, it gets frustrating.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m slowly getting rid of it now. For a while, it wasn\u2019t much fun with that left-to-right window, because it felt like I couldn\u2019t aim far enough left to keep it on the course.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably the shot that irks me most.<\/p>\n

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Chris Hyde \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

AROUND THE GREEN<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve worked hard on my wedges over the last few years, and they\u2019ve definitely improved, especially from inside 120 yards.<\/p>\n

I had a little patch at the start of 2025 where I struggled with chipping, but I found a couple of things and that\u2019s come back.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m one of the best chippers in the world, but it\u2019s very serviceable. I feel pretty confident around the greens for the most part. Not Jordan Spieth-level or anything like that, but it\u2019s a solid part of my game and something that does its job well.<\/p>\n

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Stuart Franklin \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

CONSISTENCY WITH THE FLATSTICK<\/p>\n

Over the last couple of years, my driving has been a bit erratic, which is unusual for me. A lot of that was down to the hip, and I\u2019m still tidying up some of the mess that came with that.<\/p>\n

The other thing I\u2019ve probably battled my whole career is the putter. It\u2019s been streaky.<\/p>\n

When I first got on tour, I used a short putter. I\u2019d have weeks where I made everything, but most weeks it felt like a fight.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, we realised I didn\u2019t need to be the best putter on tour. I just needed to be average, and not down the bottom over a full season.<\/p>\n

I switched to an armlock putter, which tidied things up, reduced face rotation and made everything more consistent. I still have good weeks and bad weeks, like everyone, but they\u2019re nowhere near as extreme as before.<\/p>\n

A decent chunk of my success over the last few years has come from being more consistent on the greens and getting my hands out of the stroke. I\u2019ve holed some important putts in wins, play-offs and down the stretch, and having confidence in the armlock has made a big difference.<\/p>\n

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Main Image: Mert Alper Dervis\/Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n