Ryan Fox in action during the PGA Championship. Fox played alongside Grayson Murray in the third round of the tournament. Photo / Getty Images

'We need that': Fox's hopes after heavy fortnight on PGA tour

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Author: Christopher Reive,
Publish Date: Thu, 30 May 2024, 4:23pm

WARNING: This story deals with suicide. Please see below for help and crisis information.

Ryan Fox didn’t hear the news of Grayson Murray’s death until after he had finished his third round of the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Murray, who Fox played alongside the week prior during his third round at the PGA Championship, withdrew from the Challenge with two holes remaining in his second round on Saturday [NZ time] due to illness. On Sunday morning, news broke of his death, with the 30-year-old’s family later confirming he had taken his own life.

Murray had dealt with alcohol and mental health issues and had been open about that part of his life. After taking out the Sony Open in Hawaii for his second career PGA Tour win earlier this year, Murray revealed he had been sober for eight months and felt at peace.

His passing over the weekend was news that rocked the golfing world and, ahead of this week’s RBC Canadian Open, Fox told the Herald the news hit the clubhouse hard.

“I think it’ll probably take a while for it to kick in for everyone,” he said.

“I mean, I only played with him the week before for the first time but, again, it’s scary to think that it’s one week he’s here and the next week he’s not. It’s just going to be strange.”

It was the second death related to the PGA Tour in as many weeks, after a man was struck by a shuttle bus outside Valhalla Golf Club and died early in the morning before the second round of the PGA Championship. The increase of police presence around the golf club ultimately led to the arrest of world No 1 Scottie Scheffler as he tried to enter the golf course for his morning tee time, though he was released in time to play his second round. Scheffler was charged with a felony for assaulting a police officer with his vehicle and three other misdemeanours, but all charges have since been dropped.

Fox was among the many golfers to pay tribute to Murray in interviews or on social media over the last few days.

“A lot of strange things have happened in the world of golf in the last little while,” Fox said. “I think everyone’s just hoping for a relatively normal week in that sense. No scandals to happen, no one to pass away, no delays, nothing. Just a normal golf tournament.

“I think we need that and it looks like the weather is going to play ball at least for us this week, so hopefully there’s nothing else weird off the golf course that happens this week.”

Fox will go into this week’s event looking to build upon the good from his T32 finish at the Charles Schwab Classic. It was his eighth made cut of the year and second in a row, however, he admitted some missed putts cost him in his third round before a poor start to his final round saw him slip down the leaderboard a bit.

The field won’t have to worry about the weather so much in Canada this week – with near 40C temperatures at the peak of the heat as well as humidity at last week’s tournament in Texas.

This weekend will be Fox’s 11th tournament in the last 12 weeks.

“It’s very different than last week. Last week was very flat, very firm and obviously hot,” he said.

“This week, the nine I play [on Wednesday] had quite a bit of elevation change to it which is quite cool. It’s an old-school tree-lined golf course. They had awful weather in Toronto last weekend and on Monday...and there’s still a lot of standing water on the golf course and a fair bit of mud in some places so it’s going to play very different in that respect than last week.

“But it’s a strong test of golf from what I saw. A couple of long par-threes, a couple of long par-fours, especially with them now being wet, but it’s a really good golf course.”

Ryan Fox’s RBC Canadian Open round one and two tee times
Friday 12.35am and Saturday 5.50am - playing alongside Kevin Dougherty (USA) and Michael Blair (Canada).