Ryan Fox joins golf's greats with prestigious award

Ryan Fox has capped off a remarkable past 12 months by receiving the Seve Ballesteros Award, after being voted the DP World Tour’s Player of the Year for 2022.

It was a banner year for Fox, with wins at the Ras al Khaimah Classic and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, nine top-10 finishes and a career-high ranking of No 23 in the world.

In with a chance of claiming overall first place on the tour in its final event in Dubai, a 19th-paced finish at Jumeirah Golf Estates saw Fox finish the season second in the rankings behind none other than world number one Rory McIlroy.

Despite the runners-up status, he was still voted by his peers on the DP World Tour as their player of the year, the 36-year-old becoming the first New Zealander to win the prestigious award since Michael Campbell received the honour in 2005.

Past winners include McIlroy, Sergio Garcia, Pádraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo and Ballesteros himself.

Fox took out 50 per cent of the votes cast, with McIlroy taking second place, ahead of 2022 US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick in third.

The Kiwi was presented with the trophy by one of Seve’s sons Javier and his daughter Carmen, both of whom travelled to this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour – a tournament won by Seve himself in 1992 – to officially welcome Fox to the illustrious list of winners.

“It’s probably not something that I expected ever in my career. I would like to say it’s something I dreamed of, but you look at those names on the trophy and I probably don’t count myself as one of those. That is pretty cool, and to have Javier and Carmen come out and present it made it even more special.

“Last year I thought I had a chance but a few other guys played pretty well, Rory, Matt, Jon Rahm, especially at the end of the year. So when Keith Pelley told me I was pretty shocked and obviously pretty chuffed as well. To have your peers vote for you makes it that extra bit special.

“Obviously Dunhill Links was a big highlight for me last year, to win around the Home of Golf, it doesn’t really get any better. I shared the experience with Shane Warne for the previous four or five Dunhills that I played, and it was a bit sad without him there last year. To honour him that way made it even more special.

“Seve is such an icon of golf, and I’m a bit of a golf nut. I knew the history of Seve but probably didn’t quite understand then, growing up in New Zealand, quite the influence he had over here. It’s cool to hear the stories from some of the older guys that played with him, but to have my name on the Seve Ballesteros Award, it’s kind of surreal. It’s pretty cool to be part of a little bit of history in that regard.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission