Roots: Fox's home, family and All Blacks heritage

The DP World Tour produced a "Roots" feature on Ryan Fox in 2020, looking at his home and family life in New Zealand. Fox revisits childhood memories, talks about dealing with the weight of expectation growing up as the son of an All Blacks legend and reveals how he carved his own path to becoming a European tour winner.

Video Transcript

New Zealand, we're a small country.

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We're a long way from anywhere.

We love the beach.

We love all sport really.

You know, life's pretty relaxed down here compared to most other places in the world.

Ryan's a typical Kiwi.

Dad, do you want a coffee?

You know, he's very laid back in, in some ways.

Mom will have one too, right?

He loves fishing.

He loves the outdoors.

We've got the, fishing and golf comp down here in March, so hopefully the fishing and weather have improved slightly.

Tell me it's settled down a bit.

Yeah.

He has a big heart.

He's got great morals of where he sits in, in the world.

Thank you, guys.

Fresh out.

When it comes to family, when it comes to how he treats people, he's a good lad.

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Just a normal, regular bloke that happens to play very good golf.

Ryan Fox.

You know, he grew up in a typical Kiwi family.

He was a kid who, you know, demanded a bit of attention.

He wasn't really interested in cars and trucks and things like that.

He would much prefer to play with some type of ball or a bat and bash it around.

When you see the videos, it brings back a whole lot of memories, doesn't it?

And it doesn't seem that long ago.

He just wanted to be active.

Haven't seen these in about 25 years, have we?

My grandfather, Merv Wallace, he played cricket for New Zealand in the '30s, '40s, and '50s.

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Captained New Zealand and also coached New Zealand.

Oh, yeah.

Nice.

Shot.

Wow, you liked to hit it hard back then as well.

You did.

Nothing's changed.

Yes.

And obviously there's a bit of rugby, you know, on my side of the family.

See you, good luck.

World Cup, All Blacks versus Italy, Legends of Rugby.

My old man, he's played a fair few games for the All Blacks, so I was pulled in both directions as a kid.

Has it been a while since you've been here, is it?

Well, since you stopped playing was the last time I was on the grass here.

Mm-hmm.

Well, that's a while ago, isn't it?

I retired from rugby when Ryan was six.

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The moms would bring the kids and the kids would just run around having fun and run on the field and come into the dressing room.

No sort of concept.

It was something that was very public.

It was just what Dad did.

I remember kicking a ball around on the, on the ground more than actually watching Dad play rugby.

Had a couple of mates that used to come and do that with me and going into the changing rooms after games.

It's probably more special now, to be honest, standing here, not having done it in 25 years.

Didn't the, number two ground have one of the stands was named after- Yeah, after me it was the Merv Wallace stand, right?

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Yeah.

Yeah.

I think growing up, I was best at cricket.

I remember my granddad bowling to me when I was sort of two or three, and that was always really special to me.

So here we go, the Merv Wallace stand.

That's quite cool, huh?

Yeah, that is pretty cool.

Adele's parents were just up the road from us, like 100 meters up the road.

Oh, here he is.

Dad put in a lot of time with Ryan when he was little.

And I like to think that Ryan has got a bit of my dad's temperament.

Wallace, 211.

Probably missed my calling in cricket.

I would've been a half decent T20 player, I reckon.

He had very good hand-eye coordination, Ryan, and gave the ball a hell of a thump.

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So you see that in his golf.

Probably helped out that I picked a, a different sport in the end.

I just loved sport at school and, and the, the two high schools I went to both were, you know, massively into their sport.

I was pleased he didn't pursue rugby because he might have become a bit of a target.

In fact, in one year at school, he did become a bit of a target.

I split my head open playing rugby.

You know, you'd go out and play cricket and all you'd get is bouncers.

I was probably too slow to be a rugby player.

I certainly remember hearing, "Oh, that's Fox's kid over there.

Let's smash him."

It's something you just grow up with, so it's normal.

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But, you know, I probably did get targeted a little bit more and maybe had a bit more, you know, pressure.

So this is the house we grew up in.

Wasn't bad at rugby.

Played cricket.

He was better at cricket.

And then Ryan chose golf.

Golf was always there at some level.

I had clubs as a kid in the backyard.

I, I used to hit balls around, but it was always a sport I played for fun.

Well, I actually think that is my first ever set of golf clubs.

He was about 11, and he had some friends that he went to school with that were playing golf, and so, they all belonged to Whitford Golf Club.

I mean, it's seen better days now.

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The old, Cobra Juniors.

I think they've got, it's got Greg Norman on it somewhere, I think.

Yep.

He'd play around with whoever was there, have lunch, then go looking for balls afterwards.

So he just absolutely loved it.

I just always wanted to be a sportsman, and when I gave up cricket and rugby, I wanted to find something else.

It was probably within a year or two of leaving school, he thought, "This was, this is what I wanna do."

Always have good memories coming back to this place.

Now, Dad and I were reasonably insistent that he get, an education behind him at university, get something, because that was always gonna be challenging.

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I started a law degree at Auckland University, and I needed something else to do and thought I'd try tournament golf.

I played off two at the time.

I thought, "I'll get a coach."

That's good too.

See what golf's like.

He started golf really late.

He really has carved out his own niche.

Hit plenty down here before off the tee, but never one up there.

Very proud of him for that.

I've played it well over a thousand times, literally never hit it on the green.

Yeah, maybe you guys can follow me around a little bit more, eh?

You know, that's probably the easiest birdie I've made on this hole.

He was a tough kid mentally.

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He had this incredible belief, you know, in, in, in backing himself, but the mental toughness, that resilience was something that I always thought would hold him in good stead.

For me, if you play bad, sometimes just getting away from it and doing something completely different helps.

And for me, when I'm back here, that's always fishing.

I guess a couple of years in, I made the New Zealand Academy, and that's when I thought I might have a chance of doing this for a living.

It was actually the, the week my grandfather died, and I was down staying with a, with a few mates who were all budding professional golfers at the time, and got the phone call on a Wednesday saying, "You know, your granddad's really sick.

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You better come back up to Auckland."

It was a four-hour drive.

Made it back up.

He died overnight, and I, I s- mum and dad said, "Well, you can't do anything here.

You may as well go back down and play."

I turned up.

I finished second that week, which was the best result I'd had in a big tournament.

That was a, the point where at the end of that week it was like, "Oh, you know, maybe I am half-decent at this."

That was kind of the unlocking of something in the brain as well.

You know, sometimes when something else takes your mind off it, golf takes a backward step.

It's a little bit easier, and that was the week it, it kind of happened for me.

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Well, I've followed Ryan since he was an amateur.

When he made that transition from amateur golf to pro golf, I sort of talked to him a little bit about what some of the pitfalls that guys get into, you know, what to look out for, and get him sort of prepared for the life of professional golfer.

Well, I think it might be dinner.

My path to Europe was kind of a strange one.

I'd literally never been to Europe before I played a Challenge Tour event.

Just a nice little New Zealand snapper.

Perfect eating size.

I, I played really well on, on the Aussie tour, really well on the one Asia tour.

Signed with ISM at the time, and get the call saying, you know, "We're gonna try to get you some Challenge Tour starts."

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I've worked with, Ryan for about eight years now.

It's definitely that feel of that left shoulder being down.

His, you know, strength's those, his athleticism and how strong he is.

That looks good, eh?

He's tremendously long, not just with the driver, but his irons, and his ability to play very aggressive, no-holds-barred sort of golf.

My first trip to Europe, I played great that week.

I think I finished fifth.

Which got me into the next week in Scotland.

Managed to finish 10th, and in the process of that I went to Open qualifying and qualified for the Open at St. Andrews.

Competitive part of him is, is, is, you know, a huge part of who he is.

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He'll challenge you, and that's, I think, a great thing.

It's definitely getting more centered, Foxy.

I remember having, I wouldn't say an argument with my manager.

He's sort of pushing, "Oh, Foxy, we're gonna get you a start in France the week after the Open."

And I was done.

I, I just, I just wanna go home.

And he's like, "Just go and play.

We don't You know, it's only one more week."

So I turned up there.

I don't think I, I played a practice round, didn't hit a practice ball for the week, and I won that event, and I ended up with full Challenge Tour status.

That was how I got onto Europe.

As a caddy would say about some player, he carries that X factor.

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Plays very aggressively.

He plays very quickly, which I think in the long term is gonna carry him to great success.

Before Europe was even an option, I just wanted to win on a big tour, and winning in Perth was pretty special.

Ryan Fox taps it in, and he's broken through.

I'd love to win again, to get that feeling of coming down the stretch and winning it.

And I guess the other goal is to get in the top 50 in the world and get a chance to play in the Masters.

Top 50 in the world is a great goal, and that's what I'd love Ryan to get into.

Okay, Toons, you better get in there, so- To see him recently having so much success is, it's been awesome.

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Eight.

And I think there is, you know, potentially quite a bit more to come.

He's done not too bad at the last few years.

I'll still beat you even if I have to give you shots.

True.

He has all the shots.

He has the right work ethic.

He has the right determination.

He has the right mindset.

He just needs to tidy up the little bits.

Believe he's gonna win a major one day.

Definitely.

100%.

You're just being nice to me 'cause I cooked you dinner tonight.

I'm not.

I'm not.

I'm not.

I'm quite happy I chose golf.

We've had three generations of our family represent New Zealand in three different sports.

You know, to turn on the telly and be able to watch your son play golf in the middle of the night on the other side of the world's very special.

It's amazing that he's able to be living his dream.

The nice thing nowadays is I now get introduced as the father of Ryan Fox, not him as the son, of which I think is really cool.

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