Pandemic’s reality hits Ryan Fox but New Zealander keeps faith

A glance at Ryan Fox’s performances since Covid-19 rocked the world would not particularly nudge anybody towards further investigation. The 35-year-old made 15 cuts from the 20 European Tour events he played during 2021 but recorded just two top 10 finishes.

He came 82nd in the order of merit, 24 places lower than in 2020. His annual prize money remained consistent at just under €400,000, but was still a considerable drop from what he had accumulated in the three seasons between 2017 and 2019. He has slipped outside the world’s top 200.

The New Zealander is keen to insist many people have had it far, far worse during the pandemic but his country’s strict border controls have made life far from straightforward for Fox, his wife, Anneke, and their 13-month-old daughter, Isabel. Or, as he puts it: “Brutal.”

At the end of Fox’s run in the Middle East – he is now at Yas Links, competing in the Abu Dhabi Championship – he will return to New Zealand for a fourth mandatory hotel quarantine. This time it will be for 10 days, at least, as opposed to 14.

“I’m in a good place, I know I’ve got a job,” he says. “There are some Kiwis overseas that are not as well placed as me, that don’t have a job. It was frustrating enough at the start and it’s probably got worse. Our system has got harder and harder. We finally, just before Christmas, had some help. I think we get 22 spots a month as individual athletes trying to get into the country.

“There’s less and less hotel spaces. We went from basically first in, first served to where you put your passport number in a system at a certain time and that number gets randomised. You get in a queue to book a room. They will release dates for maybe three months and if the date you want is gone then