Ryan Fox carded a 69 on Friday to open up a three-shot lead over a group including three South Africans heading into the weekend at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic.
The Kiwi suffered with back trouble at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship last week and missed out on the weekend by one shot seven days ago.
A weekend of treatment looks to have done the trick, however, and after an opening 63 in round one of the second consecutive event at Al Hamra Golf Club, he moved to 12 under on day two to lead the way from Oliver Bekker – who carded a course-record 62 – two more South Africans in Justin Harding and Zander Lombard, Italy’s Francesco Laporta, Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal and Australian Jason Scrivener.
A 2016 European Challenge Tour graduate, Fox won the 2019 ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth but is still seeking a first 72-hole stroke-play win on the DP World Tour.
And should he claim one this week, he believes the key may have been having last weekend off to recover from his injury.
“I struggled with my back last week and I was fighting, everything was crossed over and I didn’t know where I was aiming,” he said. “I was just pretty much trying to hit the ball, to be honest, and I was probably quite glad I had a weekend off.
“I had a lot of physio work over the weekend with the tour physios and then with my physio from Tuesday onwards. That loosened everything up and I felt like I could turn through it again, I felt like I could start the ball where I wanted to and from that point it was kind of easy. I felt like I could hit my shot where I wanted to which was a nice place to be.”
He added: “It was a bit scrappier than yesterday, I didn’t drive it quite as well, a little sloppy hitting in the water on the last – that doesn’t help – but hit my irons really good and gave myself plenty of chances.
“I made seven birdies today so hopefully I can just keep it going the next couple of days, but it’s been a lot of fun out there.”
Fox started the day with a two-shot lead and while he made five pars to start his second round, he put approaches to five feet at the sixth and ninth to turn in 34.
He dropped a shot on the 12th but then got up and down from the sand at the driveable par-four 13th, took advantage of the par-five next and put his tee-shot to 14 feet at the 15th for a hat-trick of gains.
Sand off the tee at the 16th led to a bogey but he recovered the shot from 13 feet on the next before finding water on the last for a closing bogey.
Bekker started the day at one over but made a 24-footer for eagle on the 14th to go with four birdies as he turned in 30.
Gains on the first, second and third made it four in a row and we were on 59 Watch at nine under with six to play.
But a bogey on the fifth ended those hopes before the 37-year-old birdied the sixth and seventh in a brilliant ten-under-par effort.
Lombard looked like he might equal Bekker’s effort as, after turning in 33 from the 10th as he went birdie-eagle on the 13th and 14th, he picked up shots at the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth.
The 27-year-old found sand with his second at the ninth, however, and had to settle for a par and a 63.
Harding and Larrazábal both carded rounds of 67, while Laporta and Scrivener registered 69s.
Jordanian teenager Shergo Al Kurdi signed for a second consecutive 68 to make his first cut in his eighth start and sit at eight under alongside Swede Alexander Björk, Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura, German Maximilian Kieffer and Scottish pair Robert MacIntyre and Connor Syme.
– Report from DP World Tour website
