Honorary European Ryan Fox 'bloody chuffed' with Ryder Cup result

Defending Dunhill Links champion Ryan Fox was “bloody chuffed” to see Europe regain the Ryder Cup and is determined to get his own crack at the Americans in the next Presidents Cup.

Defending champion Ryan Fox gestures ahead of teeing off on the first hole on the Old Course during a practice round prior to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Picture: Octavio Passos/Getty Images.

The Kiwi laughed off being tagged as a “neutral” as he was asked to offer his view on Luke Donald’s side beating the Americans 16.5-11.5 in Rome last weekend.

“I've been out here since 2015,” he said of being a DP World Tour card holder. “I feel like an honorary European and got a lot of mates on that team and was bloody chuffed to see them do what they did.

“Yeah, it was great to be able to support the boys. And also seeing the golf course a couple years ago (in the Italian Open) and seeing how it played, I felt like I had skin in the game as well feeling like an honorary European, and I was actually pulling for them and chuffed they got it done.”

Fox, who defends his crown in Scotland this week as the BMW PGA champion following a sensational Wentworth win last month, bumped into Bob MacIntyre in the media centre at St Andrews.

“He always looked like someone who is going to get there,” said Fox of the Oban man. “He's had a really solid year this year. Incredible to qualify automatically for the team, a heck of an effort, especially considering how strong the top half of that European team was.

“He's always been a guy that if you get him in contention, he doesn't shy away from it, and it was kind of expected last week that that's what he was going to do. He would have been up for the occasion.

“And I think Luke did a really good job, as well, pairing him with Rosey, who has that experience, the nerve, assembling his nerves a little bit. Obviously he stepped up on Sunday as well. It looked like for a while that his match might have really, really mattered and he was playing really solid down the stretch to get the win there. I think there's some pretty big things to come to Bob, and a few on that team actually.”

Fox has his sights on next year’s Presidents Cup in Canada, having been unlucky to miss out on the International team for the last encounter.

“I was a bit disappointed last year to not get there but, probably like Adrian Meronk feels, if you're left up to a captain's pick, it's going to be someone's opinion. Probably going to help myself out having my PGA Tour card next year.

“The Presidents Cup probably doesn't have quite the same aura around it as the Ryder Cup does, but it's certainly something I'd really love to play in. I know the International Team has not had the greatest record, so I would like to try to get on that team and maybe grab a little bit of history as well.”