Ryan Fox

As the son of All Black great Grant Fox and grandson of the late New Zealand cricketer Merv Wallace, sport is something of a family business for Ryan Fox.

And although he played both rugby and cricket at high school, it was a career in golf he was ultimately destined to pursue. As of 2025, he is ranked among the top 40 players in the world and has several PGA and European Tour wins to his name.

“I had sport in the genes,” the 38-year-old says. “But it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to play.”

Ryan first picked up a golf club at 13 and by the age of 16, he was playing off a two handicap. But it wasn’t until he finished high school that he decided to “take the sport seriously”.

“Once I started playing some tournament golf, that was it – I absolutely loved it,” he says.

Despite his dream of being a pro golfer, Ryan entered the University of Auckland on the advice of his parents, who encouraged him “to have something to fall back on” if his sports career didn’t pan out. After starting out studying law, he soon switched to a Bachelor of Arts majoring in psychology, transitioning from full-time to part-time study as his golf career started to take off.

In 2012 he turned pro, and he’s since gone on to compete on the PGA Tour Australasia, the European Tour and the PGA Tour, reaching a career-high world ranking of 23 in 2022.

And while 2025 has been one of his most successful years yet, over his career he has had to learn to accept the ups and downs that are par for the course in the world of professional sport.

“I’ve certainly had some moments of not enjoying it, of struggling to compete and potentially wanting to give the game up,” he admits. “But as I've got older, I've become better at being more level and accepting that everything sorts itself out eventually.”

He’s also become more philosophical about his relationship to the sport as his career evolves.

“Golf is such a hard game, you can never be perfect,” he says. “No matter how well you’ve played, no matter what score you’ve shot, if you've won a tournament or not, you can still look back and go ‘I could have done better’. And I think that’s what I like about it, the idea of never quite being able to master it.”

Another aspect of the game he thrives on is the mental side.

“You’re always playing under some kind of pressure,” he says. “There’s no hiding, there’s no team to be a part of – it's you against the golf course and you against the rest of the players in the field.”

Something that doesn’t get easier, though, is the time he has to spend apart from his wife and two young daughters. Currently based in Florida, Ryan is on the road for up to 25 weeks a year, though he still manages to devote three or four months annually to being in New Zealand, “which will always be home”.

And while he has ticked off many of the major career goals he initially set himself, he still has his eye on winning a major tournament.

“I still really enjoy golf, and I feel like I’ve got a few more good years left in me yet.”