Fox says All Blacks didn’t know he would bear flag in Baltimore

Not even the All Blacks knew it would be Ryan Fox holding the New Zealand flag ahead of the test against the Springboks in Baltimore.

In a week between tournaments, the world No 24 and Champion Golfer of the Year was invited to watch the test in the New Zealand Ambassador’s box and was informed they wanted him to hold the flag as the sides walked out on to the field.

It continued a run of well-known Kiwis flying the flag for the tour, with All Blacks great Sean Fitzpatrick, Six60’s Marlon Gerbes and Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant all taking on the role earlier in the tour.

In each of the four tests, the All Blacks captain – Ardie Savea in the first three, then Codie Taylor in the fourth – invited the flagbearer to stand arm in arm as part of the team rather than the traditional position slightly away from the squad.

“You go out on the field and see the team run out and Codie [Taylor] pulled me in. To see what those guys have every week is pretty incredible and they were brilliant including me in that. I had a great experience,” Fox said.

“Obviously the result was not something that I think we wanted, but just to, and it certainly was a tough watch there at the back end of the second half, but I think the boys did us incredibly proud over the whole tour and I think we’re in a pretty good place.

“They’re a tough team to beat, the South Africans, but I feel like we’re in a good place for the World Cup next year. And yeah, just that’s an experience I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

“I ended up staying in the same hotel as them and all the boys turned up to a Six60 concert, which was pretty amazing. I had a chat to a few of them and Codie said to me, ‘we didn’t actually know who was going to be flagbearer and we were all pretty excited when we ran out and saw it was you’, so to hear that from them was pretty amazing.”

After finishing his PGA Tour season at the end of last month 26th in the FedEx Cup standings, Fox will return to action at the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, England – one of the pinnacle events of the DP World Tour season.

It’s an event Fox has had previous success in, including winning the tournament in 2023, and one that he hopes will bring a return to form after some patchy performances over the PGA Tour playoffs.

The 39-year-old will start his tournament this evening in one of the feature groups, alongside Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, a back-to-back Masters champion, and Englishman Aaron Rai, who won the PGA Championship this year.

With three of the year’s four major winners teeing off together, Fox said he hoped he would respond to the pressure of playing in the group.

“It’s always a little bit nerve-wracking when you’re in one of those big groups, but it’s something I’m going to have to get used to more and more often now,” he said.

“I think it’s very cool for the DP World Tour to have three major winners be members and be able to put them all in the same group at their flagship event. So yeah, I’m excited to be a part of it.

“I feel like I’ve kind of struggled a little bit to find some intensity after the Open, trying to find those same feelings and it’s not quite there, even though we’ve had some big events in the States.

“But I guess playing with Rory in front of what I imagine is going to be a pretty big crowd over the next couple of days, I think that’ll certainly help the intensity and hopefully spark a little something in the golf game too.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.