Golf is a fickle sport.

As Ryan Fox puts it, you’re always two swings away from your game either coming right or taking a dive.

Heading into this week’s Cognizant Classic at the PGA National Members Club in Florida, Fox was hopeful his game would take the former track.

“I wouldn’t say the golf game’s been great lately, but it started to feel alright in practice the last couple of days and golf can be a funny game,” Fox told the Herald.

“I feel like if it’s bad, you’re two swings away from it being good again and if it’s good, sometimes you’re two swings away from it being bad again.”

The beginning of Fox’s first year as a fully carded PGA Tour member has been a rough run. In three events, he has missed the cut twice. For the other, he was a late call-up, joining the field as an alternate and going on to finish in a tie for 41st; a bad third round ending his chances of a potential top-20 finish.

Last week at the Mexico Open, Fox was hovering around the cut line in his second round, but a four-putt double bogey on the par-four 15th left him too much work to do in his final three holes.

Still early in his campaign, Fox noted that his travel schedule had been a struggle and not helped by the fact that, until last week, his playing calendar was still very much a work in progress.

While he feels he’s not far away with his ball-striking, playing unfamiliar courses week after week means he has to be smart with his time in preparation.

“The hard thing in that regard is trying to balance learning the golf courses and trying to figure out where the golf swing is and find some confidence in that at the moment,” Fox said.

Ryan Fox is hoping for a return to form at the Cognizant Classic in Florida this week. Photo / Getty Images

“All these golf courses are ones that I’m seeing for the first time for the most part so it’s pretty hard to say ‘oh I just need to go hit some balls’ and not spend that time on the golf course. It’s a bit of a balancing act at the moment.”

It’s been a period of learning for the world No 40 and now heading into a stretch of tournaments in Florida, he was hopeful that he would be able to settle in a bit more both on and off the course.

“At the moment, I’ve pretty much just learnt that it’s tough. I feel like my golf game is good enough to compete with the guys, but it’s just been a tough one,” Fox said of his start to the season.

“It’s very different and it’s been hard trying to put a schedule together and hard trying to work out what’s happening with the family. They’re up here at the moment and travelling, and the travel probably hasn’t been overly easy the first three weeks over here.

“But now we’re going to be in Florida for quite a few weeks and hopefully that makes things a little bit easier travel-wise and that can maybe take a bit of stress out of things and make it a bit easier on the golf course too.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.