Golfer Ryan Fox, from Beachlands, has shot up the world rankings to his all-time best of 59 after a cracking effort at the Dutch Open where he narrowly missed taking out the title in a dramatic playoff with France’s Victor Perez.
Perez birdied the fourth hole of the playoff to win his second DP World Tour title.
They switched to the 17th hole at Bernardus Golf having matched each other stroke for stroke on three trips down No 18 in the playoff, with Perez holing birdie putts from 15 feet and then 30 feet to keep it alive, golfchannel.com reported.
On the fourth playoff hole, Perez rolled in another long-range putt on the 17th green and Fox missed his.
“There’s a fair amount of fortune, I’ve got to be honest with myself, holing all those long putts in the playoff,” Perez told golfchannel.
“It’s hard to put into words because it’s a long day and Ryan was flying for a while. We didn’t even really think we had a chance.
Fox looked certain to win in regulation when he chipped in for a birdie at No 11, holed from 80 feet for an eagle at No 12 and then holed from 45 feet for birdie at No 14 to establish a three-shot lead.
However, the 35-year-old Kiwi drove into water on the 18th, missed the green with his approach, and duffed his fourth shot into a greenside bunker to run up a double-bogey seven.
Playing two groups behind, Perez holed from 35 feet for birdie on the 17th to move into a share of the lead on 13 under par and hit a superb approach into the last, but missed from seven feet for what would have been a winning birdie.
Perez, Fox and Adrian Meronk, who finished a shot outside the playoff, secured the three places on offer for the British Open Championship via its qualifying series.
Fox’s world golf ranking at the year end hasn’t been below 100 since his 91 at the end of 2018. But he has been chipping away diligently with his win in the Ras al Khaimah
Classic this year taking him from 211 to 119. Solid performances had him in top 10 finishes at the Catalunya Championship (Tied 9th), the Betfred Brtish Masters (T8) and Soudal Open (T2) have seen him gradually push his way up to a world ranking of 88 with the Dutch Open enough to put him propel him to 59.
