Ryan Fox. Photo: photosport
"Letting go of the outcome" is the biggest tip golfer Ryan Fox has for anyone who has been following his incredible run on the PGA Tour.
Fox heads into the third major of the year, the US Open, on the back of two victories in the last month.
Only world number one Scottie Scheffler can claim to have a better recent record with three wins in his last four starts including the PGA Championship.
Fox won the Myrtle Beach Classic in May to qualify for the PGA and last weekend's victory at the Canadian Open earned him a spot in the US Open at Oakmont in Pennsylvania.
So what is one thing that Fox can tell others about mastering the game of golf?
"The best way to play golf is to pick a shot, commit to it and then not worry about where the ball's going to go," Fox told First Up.
"You've got no control over it once it leaves the face anyway so letting go of that outcome is the most important thing, and that's really hard to do."
That piece of advice has certainly helped Fox in recent weeks.
He had won eight times around the world until committing to the US PGA Tour two years ago.
He struggled initially on the Tour but has turned it around this year and in particular this month, with his season earnings now standing at NZ$5.5 million.
So the best way to play golf is to forget about the outcome.
"If you do that you learn some acceptance around bad shots too.
"Anyone that plays golf has had some unlucky bounces which can really piss you off, so if you've got some acceptance there as well it will certainly help your golf game."
Fox will probably need some acceptance and patience around the Oakmont course is Pennsylvania this week.
It is known as one of the toughest tests in golf.
New Zealand golfer Ryan Fox hits out of a bunker. Photo: Matthew Harris / PHOTOSPORT
Fox, who hasn't played Oakmont before, had first hand experience of the course during a practice round this week when he threw a ball into the rough to practise getting out and it took him two minutes to find his ball.
"It was only a yard away from where I was looking, but I couldn't see it until I was standing on top of it.
"The golf course is an absolute beast, it's long and its rough is nasty."
The last time the US Open was played at Oakmont in 2016, Dustin Johnson won with a four-under par score, with just four players finishing under par.
"It's going to beat some people up this week, the greens are incredibly tricky. It's renowned for having some scary, scary fast greens, and they're very slopey. I'd liken the slopes to Augusta."
Fox said players will have to accept that they're probably not going to have a great round.
"For the most part you've just got to go out and try to hit really good shots and accept you're going to hit it in some spots that you just got to almost laugh at and just try to get it back in play and not make a double bogey.
"You're going to make plenty of those (double bogeys) this week if you lose your head a little bit."
If he does have the odd bad shot Fox can also look back at the second shot he had on the fourth play-off hole in Toronto last week... a shot that more or less won him the Canadian Open.
"It's easily the best shot I've ever hit, and I've got it saved on my phone and I've watched it a bunch."
Fox will play alongside Byeong Hun An of Korea and American Joe Highsmith during the first two rounds.
