PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – Rock bottom came at The Players Championship in March. Matt Fitzpatrick’s ball-striking woes had been building for some time but it was the PGA Tour’s flagship event where the normally analytical-minded Englishman ran out of answers.
“That’s the lowest I’ve been, I felt, in my career. Statistically it could be the worst run that I’ve played as well,” Fitzpatrick recalled. “I just didn’t feel good or know where it was going.”
Fitzpatrick lost strokes to the field off the tee, with his approach play and on the greens on his way to a missed cut at TPC Sawgrass and things weren’t much better in his next start.
But slowly, with help from new swing coach Mark Blackburn, Fitzpatrick started to return to familiar patterns and the fade that he prefers to play, and in April at the RBC Heritage, his confidence began to come back as well.
“That’s when I saw Mark for the first time, and kind of with advice from my trainers — it was on how my body is, I have really long arms, so that’s got to be factored in what we’re working on,” Fitzpatrick said. “At that point, kind of everything changed, with my approach play, anyway.”
He’s finished inside the top 10 in his last two starts, including a tie for fourth last week at the Genesis Scottish Open as a tune-up for Royal Portrush, where he opened with a 67 in blustery conditions for a share of the early lead.
At the 2019 Open played at Royal Portrush, Fitzpatrick finished tied for 20th for his best finish in the game’s oldest major championship.
“The Open venues haven’t necessarily been great to me. I’ve not necessarily been playing great when I’ve come here, either,” he said. “I like this golf course. I think it’s a very fair test. It rewards good golf shots. Sometimes links doesn’t do that to you, and there’s plenty of courses that we play or I’ve played at links golf that don’t necessarily do that.”
