Two-time PGA Tour winner explains recent ordeal: "I was on the floor screaming"

PGA Tour pro Ryan Fox revealed he was reduced to screaming on the floor in agony before withdrawing from the 2026 Players Championship. 

The New Zealander was a late withdrawal from the PGA Tour's flagship event last week. 

No details were initially released about his absence. 

But the 39-year-old later posted a photograph from a hospital bed, explaining that he had to undergo surgery to remove kidney stones. 

In an interview with The Herald, Fox explained that the pain went from zero to 100 "pretty quickly". 

The symptoms began on Tuesday, he said, but he returned to the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass the following day to continue his preparation for the $25m tournament. 

Then it got a whole lot worse. 

"[I] got to a point where I couldn't deal with it anymore and went back in," he said. 

"I was screaming on the floor and saying a few words that I can't repeat. I knew at that point it wasn’t very good.

"They said, 'okay, at this point you're not going to pass it, we've got to do the procedure and break it up with some lasers and put a stent in for the inflammation.' That happened about lunchtime on Thursday.

"Obviously, as soon as I went back in on Thursday morning, I knew I wasn't playing and withdrew pretty promptly. From 2pm Wednesday afternoon until about 2pm Thursday after the operation, it wasn't a real fun 24 hours there."

Fox is now on the road to recovery but has decided to also skip this week's Valspar Championship. 

He hopes to be back in action at the Texas Houston Children's Open. 

"I was originally planning to play this week in Tampa, so I pulled out of that on Friday when I woke up the day after the surgery and was like, 'no, there's no way I'm even contemplating playing golf next week as well,'" he said. 

"I'm glad I made that decision; I certainly wouldn't want to be trying to swing drivers right now.

"It's sort of take it as it comes and having started the year reasonably well makes it a little bit easier to make that decision. 

"I'm quite happy to push the recovery another week, make sure I'm 100 per cent ready to go for Houston hopefully."

Fox wasn't the only casualty last week. Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa lasted one hole after tweaking his back on a practice swing. 

Morikawa has not revealed the extent of his injury, but Golf Channel reported that it was not that serious and he won't face a protracted spell on the sidelines.