{"id":635917,"date":"2026-10-20T04:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635917\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T04:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T04:12:10","slug":"golf-ryan-fox-to-play-at-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/635917\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf: Ryan Fox to play at Australian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo be playing it on the Sandbelt, and I think my favourite Sandbelt course in Kingston Heath, it\u2019s a great way to end the year. I\u2019m very much looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding to the occasion is that a New Zealander has never won the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Fox finished in a tie for 14th place at the 2025 Australian Open at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club, while Hillier tied for sixth.<\/p>\n

Fox said he was confident in his game to be sitting among the contenders come the final round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my golf game is good enough to compete with the top guys in the world,\u201d the 39-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be go out that week and try to make sure the golf game\u2019s there and give yourself a chance on Sunday. Anything can happen from there, and I\u2019m excited about that opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fox said he was hopeful that some Kiwis would make the trek over to watch the event.<\/p>\n

\"RyanRyan Fox pictured during the Australian Open in 2025. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt there\u2019ll be plenty over at the Aussie Open and it\u2019ll be great to play in front of a bunch of Kiwis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Dan and I and all the other Kiwis in the field will have plenty of support there, so that\u2019ll be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019s victory at Royal Birkdale has also brought a new level of attention, something he has had to learn to manage as his profile has grown.<\/p>\n

He said he had become more comfortable playing in front of large crowds and alongside golf\u2019s biggest names, having recently shared the course with McIlroy at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to play with Rory for three days there … I\u2019ve always enjoyed playing with Rory but … was a little bit intimidated by everything that came with it, whereas I was actually excited about it this year and enjoyed the whole experience with, I guess, the circus that comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He missed the cut in his most recent event at the India Championship.<\/p>\n

Fox is in South Korea this week for the Genesis Championship, before heading to Dubai and then Melbourne.<\/p>\n

After the Australian Open, he will be in Auckland for his Chasing the Fox event.<\/p>\n

Ben Francis<\/a> is an Auckland-based reporter for the New Zealand Herald who covers breaking sports news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTo be playing it on the Sandbelt, and I think my favourite Sandbelt course in Kingston Heath, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9331,1975,1135,2046,7500,4131,18126,46612,97918,15312,305,1861,194,123,111,139,69,5493,10538,6443,5128,20843,213,61,1316,1533,102,379],"class_list":["post-635917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-chance","tag-at","tag-australian","tag-career","tag-december","tag-fox","tag-golf","tag-golfer","tag-golfing","tag-greatest","tag-have","tag-history","tag-kiwi","tag-melbourne","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-open","tag-play","tag-returns","tag-ryan","tag-slice","tag-sports","tag-to","tag-when","tag-will","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}