BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Fresh from an eight-week break after winning his first two tournaments on the PGA Tour, Ryan Fox shot a 4-under 67 Thursday and was tied for the early lead at the Australian PGA Championship.

The 38-year-old New Zealander bogeyed the par-4 second hole but had five birdies the rest of the way at the Royal Queensland Golf Club.

The tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australia and the European tour, which is starting its 2025-26 season just two weeks after Rory McIlroy won the Race to Dubai title.

Fox won this year's Myrtle Beach Classic and Canadian Open on the PGA Tour.

“It’s hard to beat the year I had this year,” Fox said ahead of his first round in Brisbane. “Other than maybe making the (PGA) Tour Championship, I ticked every box that I wanted to tick.”

Fox was level with Australian Anthony Quayle and 2024 Asia-Pacific amateur champion Ding Wenyi in a group at 4-under. Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, and fellow Australian Min Woo Lee each shot 68 and were a stroke behind the early leaders.

Former British Open champion and LIV Tour regular Cameron Smith, winless in more than two years, shot 69, as did the defending champion Elvis Smylie.

Smith, who has won the Australian PGA three times and was runner-up last year, had five top-10 finishes in 13 regular LIV Golf events this season. But he missed his sixth straight cut at last week’s Saudi International in Riyadh.

Marco Penge, who won three times on the European tour this year and is the tournament's highest-ranked player at No. 30, shot 70.

On Wednesday, the big-hitting Englishman withdrew from the pro-am and said he had been receiving physiotherapy treatment for a neck strain.

“No, it’s not great,” Penge, 27, said Wednesday at Royal Queensland. “The physios here are helping me out. I think I’ve had five physio sessions in the last 24 hours, so we’re doing everything I can to feel OK."

McIlroy will highlight the field in next week's Australian Open at Royal Melbourne beginning Dec. 4.

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