Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox has made a strong showing early at the fourth and final golf Major of the year, the PGA Championship at the Bellerive Country Club in St Louis.
Playing in the opening group, Fox carded a two-under-par 68 to sit in a tie for 16th.
As he was the first out on the course, he held the clubhouse lead for a few minutes.
But after the first round, he sits in a tie for 16th, four shots behind American Gary Woodland who is at six-under par. Rickie Fowler is one shot back at five-under par.
"I played solid on the front nine and we had a 20 minutes wait to tee off on 10, and that kind of killed the momentum a little bit," Fox said after his round.
"I felt like I played well enough to shoot under par. It's nice to get those last couple of birdies to really make it easier."
The 31-year-old said he is determined to make New Zealand proud.
"Being from a small country, it's a massive deal just to have guys playing in this event.
"We've been lucky the last few years, myself, Danny Lee and Mike Hendry have been kind of holding the flag pretty high, getting to play in a few of these.
"It would be nice have a really good result and try to follow in Michael Campbell's shoes a little bit."
Fox, the only Kiwi in the field, got off to a fast start, sinking a birdie on the opening hole.
He followed that up with another birdie at the eighth to close out a two-under par front nine.
Two bogeys on the back nine threatened to derail his strong start, but Fox closed out his opening round with birdies at the 17th and 18th holes to finish two-under par.
His best finish at the PGA Championship was 54th last year.
Newshub.
