Son of Grant

The performance of New Zealand golfer Ryan Fox this weekend has been a good news story. It has been his first major, and he made the cut. The Australian circuit is often thought of as golf’s equivalent of the A-League, so it is good to see Fox, making it on the big stage at his first attempt.

He became only the third New Zealander, after Mark Brown and Steve Alker to make the weekend at a Major in the last decade.

Of course very little of that has been covered in the media here; it is all about Ryan Fox, son of All Black Great Grant Fox.

This line of coverage started before the tournament started, and it is fair to say that Grant is comfortable in front of a microphone and camera. All the pre-tournament interviews and analysis came courtesy of Grant.

He would then tellingly drop his guard after the second day, saying that “we have a tee-off time of 7 am”. That’s pretty smothering.

Even when Ryan made the cut, the news ran with the Grant-centric angle.

Inspired Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox will give his famous dad another two days at the Open at St Andrews – after firing into a share of 25th place.

— RadioLIVE Newsroom (@LIVENewsDesk) July 19, 2015

Really? How is that even an angle?

Even this morning well known sporting pundit Mike Hosking put on that special patronising tone to declare “Of course he would be level-headed, he’s a chip off the old block”. That’s top punditry there.

Perhaps one day we will move on from this and allow Ryan to be treated as a golfer and human being in his own right. But in the meantime you can expect many more opportunities for the toes to curl.