Then he holed out for eagle with a full sand wedge from 123m out on the par-four third after a drive that clung to the right edge of the fairway.
“I had not looked like hitting a good shot for the first two holes. It was kind of funny – the reason I was laughing was because I’d finally hit a good shot, and the good shot was perfect,” Fox said.
“Golf’s a strange game like that sometimes.”
Fox so often says you’re only a shot or two away from turning things around in golf, and that proved to be the case here.
After bogeys on the first two holes, Fox only had two other dropped shots through the rest of his round, with an eagle and six birdies seeing him finish the day with a four-under-par for his best round since he carded an eight-under 62 in the third round of the Open Championship in mid-July.
That saw him finish the day in a tie for ninth, four shots behind leader Min Woo Lee, with the Australian going bogey-free for an eight-under 62.
Fox will play alongside Australian Adam Scott in his second round, with the pair tied at four-under. They will be among the final groups to get underway, teeing off at 5.12am NZT.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.