Matt Fitzpatrick topped the world’s top 50 for the first time in November 2015 and for all bars a week since he sat comfortably on the elite of professional men’s golf. But the 27-year-old from Sheffield is not doing well. He pushes and pushes and pushes a little more to get every ounce of a relatively light frame and increasingly substantial golf game. He is now in the top-10. He has now won in the United States. He is now a great champion, thanks to a brilliant victory in what will be remembered as one of the great US Open. “He was not happy hanging around the world for 25 or 18 years for two or three years,” Fitzpatrick’s father Russell told BBC Sport in the wake of his son Brookline’s triumph. It got in his head after the big games of 2020. He had arrived in Harding Park for that year ‘s US PGA Championship and texted friends saying he had no chance before he even hit a ball. Quite simply, the player was tired of appearing in places where he knew he could not win. Fitzpatrick doubled over for many years with South Yorkshire-based coach Mike Walker working alongside legendary coach Pete Cowen, who initially revealed the player’s talents. Cowen was a client of the father of Fitzpatrick’s banking director. “You need some luck. I could have worked in Portsmouth and never met Pete,” Russell said. His son sat down with Walker to find out how to win the extra steps that would make a difference. They enlisted the help of industrialist Sasho Mackenzie, who gave the player a speed stick called “The Stack” and a status quo to transform his game.
Fitzpatrick revealed: “I did it religiously, every week. It’s like going to the gym basically.” And it is no surprise that he was so diligent in building strength and speed that he eventually made him US Open champion in the same area of ​​Massachusetts where he beat the 2013 US Amateur as a skinny teenager. “In terms of discipline, he is so organized,” his father added. “It leaves nothing to chance.” Caddy Billy Foster, for whom this was a first big hit after 40 years as a top bag, has a more crude way of describing his boss’s devotion.
“When I first started working, I said he was Bernhard Langer’s favorite kid,” Foster told me. The meticulous German is a two-time Masters winner, Ryder Cup legend and still wins senior titles at the age of 64. “There is no one who works harder than Matt,” Foster said. “He has an incredible work ethic and with that extra confidence from winning a big championship it will keep him in a good position to move on.” Foster suffered some bittersweet defeats while working for Thomas Bjorn, Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke. Fitzpatrick erased much of that pain with his stunning performance at The Country Club. He beat world number one Scottie Scheffler, leaving defending champion Jon Rahm and fighter Rory McIlroy on his way, as well as longtime specialist Will Zalatoris, a third-place finisher in a major category. “He hit 17 of the 18 greens in a big league at a US Open,” Foster said. “This is incredible golf.
“He has worn 20 yards from his shirt. His hitting and cracking have become much better and he normally fits perfectly. He has not put on very well in recent weeks, something that does not look like him at all.
“He will go from strength to strength and will be a real dominant player in the game.” Fitzpatrick is quietly underrated, but he, perhaps more than anyone else, knows his potential. Amid the hustle and bustle of a media frenzy around Brooklyn’s 18th Green, he took some time to think about what he had accomplished.
“I have confidence in myself,” he told BBC Sport. “I support myself. I really feel like I can fight out here.
“I feel like I’m better than what I’ve already achieved, I really do. I think for me this is such a special thing for the work I have done in recent years to reward it.”
Now the 10th best player in the world, this was his eighth finish in the top 10 on the PGA Tour this year. His biggest fight is trying to articulate what this victory means to him. “I can not tell you, I honestly can not tell you,” he smiled. “There are not many, in my opinion, who work harder than me.
“I’m just trying to find 1% wherever I can. Whether it is sleep, or a choice of plans, a course strategy, whatever it is.
“I’m just trying to find something that makes me a better player. I complained at the beginning of the year, these other guys are in the top-10 every week – what am I missing? “It simply came to our notice then. So I just have to keep doing what I’m doing.
“I do not want to be complacent now. It’s very easy to win and just disappear a little bit. I just have to keep doing what I’m doing.” It would be irresponsible to make hasty and ambitious predictions about the first British winner of a men’s championship after his South Yorkshire counterpart Danny Willett at the 2016 Masters. But Fitzpatrick’s mantra will surely serve him well. As he says: “Do not be lazy and keep working hard and I hope that more will follow”.