By Matt Smith
When you run down the leaderboard of the season-long DP World Tour Rankings, it reads like a usual suspects’ who’s who of golf: Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Ryan Fox… Wait, who?

This time last year, Fox was a relative unknown in the circles of world golf; a journeyman with a handful of minor tour titles to his name. But a whirlwind 2022 has propelled the 35-year-old Kiwi into the spotlight, with victory in the Ras Al Khaimah Classic in February kickstarting a year that has saw him rise from the high 200s to No. 24 in the world.

He is in the form of his life, having also claimed the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland last month and only missing out on the Nedbank Golf Challenge last week by a stroke to Tommy Fleetwood in Sun City.

Now Fox is aiming to make sure his name is known around the globe as he targets a double success at Jumeirah Golf Estates this week in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, with the Rankings title also within reach as he sits second in the standings behind McIlroy.

“It’s all a bit surreal to be honest,” admitted Fox on Wednesday. “If you’d have told me at the start of the year the position I would be in now, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.

“But it’s been an amazing season and hopefully I can finish it off this week. But regardless of what happens, I’m really proud of what I’ve done this year. It’s been a fun ride.”

Ryan Fox. DP World Tour

Following his runner-up finish in South Africa last week, the gap to McIlroy is now only 128 points — with 2,000 on offer for this week’s winner. Fox is aware that if he finishes anywhere near the top of the leaderboard ahead of the world No. 1, he could secure one of the most unlikely of crowns in recent golf history.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better week last week but I’m not trying though think about it too much,” Fox said. “Rory is the best player in the world. He’s obviously the favourite, but to be in this position is great and I’ve got nothing to lose this week. I won’t do anything different from what I’ve been doing all year. Just go out and try to beat the golf course and see what happens. That’s served me pretty well and hopefully I can do the same thing this week.”

Fox has been paired with McIlroy for Thursday’s first round as the groups are set depending on the Rankings standings, and the Kiwi is keen to get going alongside the Northern Irishman for the first time in his career.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he added. “To play along with the No. 1 is always special. I’ve heard from plenty of guys on tour that he’s a great guy. There will be nerves. I’m sure we will have pretty big crowd out there which will be nice.

“But that’s what you play golf for. You want to be in those big groups, and it’s cool this year in the fact that I’ve earned the right to be there. I will try to enjoy it as much as I can and hopefully continue the good form. I’ve obviously played in a few decent groups, been in contention a lot this year and handled that pretty well, so hopefully nothing changes in that respect on Thursday.”

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox celebrates his win at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic in February. Getty Images

Fox made an unremarkable start to the 2022 season (61st in Abu Dhabi, 26th in Dubai and a missed cut at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship) before he found something special at the second of the back-to-back events at Al Hamra Golf Club in RAK.

“To be fair, for that missed the cut I was struggling with the back a little bit,” he said. “It just suddenly locked up on me and my physio came out that week. The following week, and I had a little bit of work done by the European Tour physios, and I felt like the game wasn’t too far away. I played relatively well in Dubai [at the Desert Classic] minus a few holes here and there. Obviously something clicked that week and just felt like I got out of my own way really nicely.

“I think I got a lot out of that second week [at the RAK Classic], and coming into that last round with a six-shot lead, all you’re thinking is: ‘Don’t mess it up,’ basically. And to come out of that relatively unscathed and get the win, I think that helped a lot confidence-wise, and was nice to take that into the rest of the season. I felt a whole lot more confident in that situation.”

“To get another win at the Dunhill was amazing and arguably I could have got a couple more as well but it’s pretty hard to win out here. To put myself in that position as many times as I have done this year is pretty cool. Hopefully I can do the same thing again this week.”

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