Ryan Fox reveals painful reason for missing The Players Championship

Ryan Fox was due to tee-off at the Players Championship in Florida but pulled out just hours before the first round.

The reason was listed simply as ‘illness’ by the PGA Tour.

For a man of Fox’s stature, a burly, big-hitting son of an All Black, it was speculated that the illness must’ve been severe to stop him from playing in golf’s unofficial fifth Major.

That was confirmed by the man himself, who later posted a picture from a hospital bed.

“Not exactly the week I had planned here @theplayers,” Fox posted on Instagram . 

“Unfortunately some kidney stones took me down on Tuesday night and then had to be dealt with surgically this afternoon. Devastated to miss out on such an amazing event, hoping to have a quick recovery and be back at it soon.”

Fox came into the event at TPC Sawgrass in great form having secured four top-25 finishes in a row on the PGA Tour.

The Aucklander was tied for 24th at the Phoenix Open, tied for 24th at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, tied for 7th at the Genesis Invitational before being tied for 24th again at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last weekend.

Fox is currently ranked 44th in the world and is seventh in the Presidents Cup standings, with the top-six to automatically qualify for this year’s event against the United States at the Medinah Country Club.

The next PGA Tour event is the Valspar Championship starting on 20th of March.