New Zealand’s Ryan Fox gave the DP World Tour UAE Swing the perfect send off at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic on Sunday.
The Kiwi clinched a wire-to-wire victory for his second DP World Tour title at Al Hamra Golf Club in some style, cruising to a five-stroke victory over England’s Ross Fisher in second spot.
The trio of Germany’s Hurly Long, South African Zander Lombard and Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal settled for a share of third place.
But no one could touch Fox, who has been in sparkling form all week long in the northern emirate, carding an amazing 30 birdies over four days to sign for a 22-under total and pick up $340,000 for his biggest career payday in the UAE.
Fox led from day one at Al Hamra and kept the entire field of 131 other players at arm’s length and even allowed himself the luxury of a satisfied grin as he walked up the 18th fairway knowing the job was done.
Fisher was a distant second on 17-under as the curtain fell on four weeks of golfing action n the UAE, starting with the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links, then the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic over the Emirates Golf club Majlis Course ahead of the Ras Al Khaimah Championship and Classic, both played at Al Hamra.
“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.
“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, moving him to eighth in the DP World Tour Rankings.
