Ryan Fox secured his second DP World Tour title in wire-to-wire fashion at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic, after the New Zealander recovered from a nervy start to eventually cruise home for a five-shot victory at Al Hamra Golf Club.
The 35-year-old was slow out of the traps on the final day in the northernmost of the United Arab Emirates, while others came flying out of the blocks, but the six-stroke lead he had built in the opening three rounds helped ease the pressure before he finally found his feet.
A birdie at the eighth meant he at least reached the turn in level par and, having been only two clear of a busy chasing pack after 11 holes, he drained a huge putt at the 12th for the first of back-to-back birdies which really hammered home his advantage and put the Kiwi virtually out of reach.
“Probably relief is the main emotion, obviously it was a bit of a struggle today,” said Fox. “Sleeping on a six shot lead, I didn’t sleep very well last night. Obviously a couple of the guys came at me early. I was a bit nervous, I had that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach all day but I’m very happy with how I played, a couple of great shots coming down the stretch and it was certainly nice walking down the last with putter in hand with so many putts to win.
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“I learned that I’m pretty resilient, obviously there was some bad stuff in there but I just kept plugging away. There were a couple of big momentum putts on the back nine, the one on ten for par and then the one on 12 just kick-started everything and I felt like I played pretty solid the rest of the way in.”
Fox, the son of New Zealand rugby legend Grant, finished in style with a birdie at the last to rubber-stamp victory with a three under 69 and a 22 under total, moving him to eighth in the DP World Tour Rankings.
Englishman Ross Fisher came through the pack with a pair of 66s at the weekend to clinch second place outright on 17 under while Pablo Larrazábal – who at one point looked most likely to capitalise on Fox’s shaky start – shared third place with Germany’s Hurly Long and Zander Lombard of South Africa.
