Golfer Ryan Fox is about to head overseas again with the Open Championship and the Olympics firmly in his sights.
Ryan Fox Photo: PHOTOSPORT
It's the second time Fox has headed back to the European Tour this year, but this time he's hoping it will be a bit more permanent.
Fox played three events in the Middle East earlier this year finishing tied for sixth at the Saudi International.
He decided to return home instead of heading into Europe because of the uncertainty with the Coronavirus pandemic.
Since then he's been playing locally, winning two Charles Tour events at Gulf Harbour and Murawai and finishing third at the New Zealand PGA.
"Following my run in the local tournaments last month I won't be heading into this trip feeling underdone tournament wise like I was at the start of the year so hopefully that puts me in good stead."
Fox's first event back in Europe is in Denmark next week and he'll have a steady stream of events through July when the Open Championship is played at Royal St George's in Kent and then the Olympics in Tokyo.
"I'm looking forward to it, I had a good run of form back here and I'm looking forward to taking that overseas and see how it goes and back into playing on the Tour."
All going well his family will join him at some stage and the plan is that Covid-permitting he'll stay till the end of the season in November.
"The plan is to play as much as possible to make sure I've got a job for next year."
"The best case scenario is that things (including Covid) go well and I can stay till the end of the season, which would be what would happen in a normal year, otherwise if the family can't make it I might have to do a couple of trips and do the quarantine thing again."
Fox does have the opportunity to qualify for the US Open in June with the Denmark tournament and the European Open in Germany a week later both counting towards qualification.
He says the two big events for him this year are the Open Championship and the Olympics in July.
Fox played at the Rio2016 games and has no hesitation about going to Tokyo despite the continuing affects of the pandemic.
He says going to a second Olympics means a lot.
Grant Fox and Ryan Fox Photo: Photosport
"It's the highest honour in any sport and to get a chance to represent your country."
"Obviously I grew up in a sporting family with my grandfather playing cricket for New Zealand and my father playing for the All Blacks so representing New Zealand was the highest honour and I always had that growing up so for me it's not a tough decision to go.
Fox's maternal grandfather Merv Wallace was a former New Zealand test cricket captain and father Grant Fox played 46 times for the All Blacks.
"Obviously there are a few issues going on with the Covid-19 pandemic and if the Olympics go ahead I'll certainly go."
"I think its been shown that running a bubble for a sporting event. albeit it'll have to be a big bubble for the Olympics, works and therefore with vaccination it will be a reasonably safe environment to travel to."
As Covid restrictions start to ease in Britain and Europe, Fox is hoping to see some fans back at tournaments.
"Sport isn't quite the same without fans and we've seen that in rugby and football recently and so golf will certainly welcome back the fans when they can."
With New Zealand now on the green zone list for entering the UK, Fox no longer needs to quarantine when he arrives in London and he'll spend a couple of days at his base near London before heading to Denmark, but will still be required to pass regular Covid tests.
Fox is currently 103rd in the European rankings, while he's currently ranked 47th in the list of 60 players eligible for the Olympics.
