Fox hunts down first title

Daniel Fox

WA tour professional Daniel Fox has stormed home with a closing birdie on his final hole to sneak into a playoff and claim the Handa Nedlands Masters title over Darren Tan.

Tan looked a certain winner after a superb 7 under par 65 in benign morning conditions to be in the club house with a two round total of 9 under par.

The wind picked up in the afternoon, which made scoring difficult around the tight Nedlands layout however Fox demonstrated some fine putting to follow his first round 68 with a five under 67 and join Tan at 9 under.

A par on the second playoff was good enough for Fox to claim his first major title in WA and place his name alongside some of the greats of Australian golf.

Former champions of the long standing event include Stuart Appleby, Greg Chalmers, Nick O’Hern, Michael Long and Terry Gale.

Fox has spent most of his career playing the mini tours in the US and claims the Handa Nedlands Masters as his biggest win to date.

Both Fox and Tan played the recent Australian Open and PGA Championship with mixed results however they will both fly to Melbourne for the JBWere Australian Masters and will go into the week high in confidence.

Rick Kulacz needed a birdie on his last hole to join the playoff, but a solid par secured 3rd place.

Leading amateur was state team member Ray Chow who shot rounds of 69 and 74 to finish on 1 under par. Ryan Peake finished on 4 over and finish the next best amateur.

A new intitiative to this year’s event was the Skywest Teams Challenge with each group made up of a PGA professional, elite amateur and two sponsor representatives. The winning team was Paul Orchard, closely followed by Bruce Allbrook.