BRISBANE, Australia (AP) – Fresh off an eight-week break after winning his first two tournaments on the PGA Tour, Ryan Fox shot a 4-under 67 on Thursday to move into an early tie for the lead at the Australian PGA Championship.
The 38-year-old New Zealander made bogey on the par-4 second hole at Royal Queensland Golf Club but made five birdies the rest of the way.
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The tournament is jointly sanctioned by Australia’s PGA Tour and the European Tour, which begins its 2025-26 season just two weeks after Rory McIlroy won the Race to Dubai title.
Fox won this year’s PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic and Canadian Open.
“It’s hard to top this year,” Fox said ahead of his first race in Brisbane. “I checked all the boxes I wanted to check, except maybe to play in the (PGA) Tour Championship.”
Fox was tied with Australia’s Anthony Quayle and 2024 Asia-Pacific Amateur champion Ding Wenyi in the four-under group. 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott and fellow Australian Min Woo Lee each shot 68s, leaving them one stroke behind the early leader.
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Former British Open champion and LIV Tour regular Cameron Smith, who hasn’t won in over two years, also shot 69, as did defending champion Elvis Smiley.
Smith, a three-time Australian PGA winner and runner-up last year, has recorded five top-10 finishes in 13 LIV Golf regular events this season. However, he failed to qualify for the Saudi international tournament held in Riyadh last week for the sixth consecutive tournament.
Marco Penge, who won three times on this year’s European Tour and is ranked 30th, his highest ranking in the tournament, shot a 70.
On Wednesday, the hard-hitting British player withdrew from the pro-am competition and said he was undergoing physical therapy due to neck tightness.
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“No, it’s not great,” Penge, 27, said at Royal Queensland on Wednesday. “The physical therapists here are helping me. I think I’ve had five physical therapy sessions in the last 24 hours. So we’re doing everything we can to feel okay.”
McIlroy will be in the spotlight at next week’s Australian Open, which begins December 4 at Royal Melbourne.
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
