mexico open
Watch the longest made putt of the PGA Tour season, which is so long it has a good chance of holding up all year
Hector Vivas
Ryan Fox was cruising along Thursday at the Mexico Open, only one under par after 13 holes. His tee shot on the par-3, fifth hole (his 14th of the round) from 192 yards landed near the back of the green, less than ideal considering the front, right pin placement.
It didn’t matter.
The 38-year-old from New Zealand put a good stroke on the ball and it was moving quickly as it got toward the hole, hit the left side, rolled 360 degrees around the hole and dropped for an unlikely birdie.
The putt was from 91 feet, seven inches, the longest of the year by more than 20 feet. Cameron Young dropped a putt from 71 feet, two inches two weeks ago at the WM Phoenix Open. Fox’s putt was the longest on tour since Henrik Norlander made a putt from 93 feet at the Valero Texas Open two years ago.
“Yeah, that one was nice,” Fox said. “Honestly, I had a good two-putt on the last hole as well from like 60 feet on 4. I had the speed of the greens pretty good today. I'm not going to say I had a good line on that, I just kind of, you know, picked it out. It was breaking a whole chunk left to right and just tried to get the speed right and got lucky in the end. I didn't realize how much of a loop around the hole it did, I was obviously pretty far away, so seeing it up close on camera's pretty sweet.
“I think I did the same thing last year, holed an 80-something-footer at Waste Management last year. Yeah, I'd like to hit a little closer than 88, 90 feet or whatever it is, but it's always nice when you see those go in. Nice little bonus from a pretty poor tee shot, to be honest.”
About that putt Fox mentioned from 80-something feet, it was from 88 feet, 10 inches last year at TPC Scottsdale and, yes, it was the longest made putt of the 2024 PGA Tour season.
Fox signed for a three-under 68 on Thursday, which was four shots off the lead when he finished. He made eight birdies, three bogeys and double bogey on his 17th hole of the day when he pumped his drive out of bounds left.