New Zealand professional golfer Ryan Fox admits being in quarantine sucks, however, not swinging a club for at least three weeks won’t be a problem for him.
Fox is halfway through his isolation period at an Auckland hotel after spending three months back on the European Tour.
Fox decided to rejoin the European PGA Tour when it started up again in July… his aim was to try and improve his world ranking to make sure of qualification for next year’s Olympics.
He competed in 11 events, including the US Open in New York, and made the cut in all but three of them.
Fox is now back in New Zealand, unsure of when he will compete again, but he is excited about the arrival of his first child, which is due in December.
Being stuck in a hotel room for two weeks and not being able to swing a club is not such a big deal for him.
“It probably happens more often than you think, obviously after playing a decent stretch of golf it’s nice to take some time off and I normally do that a bit at the end of the year and maybe once in the middle of the year I’ll take a week or two off.”
The PGA of Australia announced last week that the Australian PGA championship and the Australian Open, both scheduled for February had been cancelled. At this stage the New Zealand Open is still scheduled for February.
“It’s certainly strange, it doesn’t look like I’ll have anything to play in until mid-January.”
“I still have fun playing golf so in that regard I’ll still be playing with mates and my old man but in terms of proper work and grinding to get better I don’t think that will happen until early next year or at least until I’ve got an idea of what is next for me.”
So will he at least get the putter out in his hotel room?
“Yeah the carpet looks like it would be reasonable enough to putt on here, but I hope I don’t get to that stage over the next week because I played golf almost every day of the 12 weeks I was away so I probably don’t need to see the clubs for a while yet.”
“I’m sure I will get to a point where I’ll get that bored it’ll certainly come out of the bag and have a mess around in the hotel room.”
Three months away from his wife and family, Fox admitted it is a bit frustrating being so close to home, yet still so far away.
“Yeah I think I’m only 15 minutes from home so it is weird, I commented to some mates last week that I’m on my way home but it’s going to be the longest trip ever, 15 days and 18 hours until I’m actually allowed home, so I’m certainly counting down the days and will be looking forward to getting out.”
He admits we he does leave quarantine he will be straight into expectant father duties.
“I’ve got a fair bit to catch up on when I get out I’ve got anti-natal classes to attend and there’ll be a few other things organised for me, however I plan on taking advantage of getting as much sleep as possible and also cramming in some fishing before baby is due.”
The Olympic golf competition is limited to 60 players with no more than four from each nation.
At the moment Danny Lee, who plays on the US PGA Tour is ranked 39th, while Fox is 49th.
The pair played at the Rio 2016 Olympics with Lee finishing tied for 27th and Fox tied for 39th.
Lydia Ko won silver in the women’s competition.
