Ryan Fox knows what it takes to sink a pressure-packed putt with a major championship on the line. Just months after draining a 12-footer to lift the Claret Jug, however, the New Zealander found himself on the wrong side of golf’s cruelest tease at Delhi Golf Club. He missed a short four-foot birdie putt when he needed a boost.
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As the birdie putt lipped out, the reigning Open champion reacted with exasperation. A post on X by EssentiallyGolf captured Fox throwing his ball away in anger.
After missing the putt, he holed his next shot. He then picked the ball out of the hole and threw it to his left.
The incident unfolded on the 501-yard, par-5 14th during his second round at the DP World India Championship. The hole gave Fox a chance to gain ground rather than a particularly demanding test of survival.
Live shot-tracking statistics ranked the 14th among the course’s easiest holes during the opening round. It was 17th in difficulty among the 18 holes. Players averaged 0.31 strokes under par, about 4.69 strokes per round.
The New Zealander hoped to gain some ground after his opening round of four-over 76. Starting on the back nine, Fox made a bogey on the 11th and a birdie on the 12th before reaching the 14th. Because it is one of the easiest holes, he took a risk and went over the rough, leaving just 46 yards to the hole after two shots. After his third shot, his ball sat four feet from the hole, but he missed the birdie putt.
A par on a par five is not necessarily a poor result, but the circumstances made this one more frustrating. The hole played below par on average, so a birdie would have given Fox a chance to regain ground on the field.
Instead, the opportunity disappeared at the green.
It happened again on the 18th, when he missed a four-foot birdie putt. However, he didn’t show any frustration this time.
Fox’s reaction on the 14th takes on added context when viewed alongside comments he made before the tournament. The 39-year-old openly acknowledged how hard it is to reproduce the standard he reached during his breakthrough major victory.
“Golf is never that easy really. Like you find it a couple times a year and I think there has been some expectation after that week that all right, I can find that again, and I haven’t quite found that level, so there has maybe been a little bit of frustration,” Fox said.
His comments also suggested that much of the pressure came from within. Fox acknowledged that his own expectations continued to play a significant role as he tried to establish himself among the game’s more consistent performers.
But one question is whether Ryan Fox’s quick style of play could have anything to do with these missed putts.
After his Open victory, Fox said making decisions quickly helped him avoid overthinking shots. He also expressed frustration with slow play at the DP World India Championship 2026. During his pre-tournament press conference, he said that his pet peeve is golfers not being ready when it is their turn to play.
Playing quickly does not necessarily mean rushing a putt or ignoring the green’s contours. But could it somehow also result in missed putts? Only the New Zealander can answer that.
But currently, he is through 14 holes in his second round, with a cumulative score of three-over. With the projected cut at even par, he is on the verge of missing the weekend play. That would have certainly added to the frustration.
For Ryan Fox, the challenge now is to turn missed opportunities into a late-round recovery. His Open triumph at Royal Birkdale proved he can deliver under the highest pressure, but Delhi has reminded him that reaching that level consistently is far from easy.