EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Matt Fitzpatrick has sights set on glory

There’s a funny and untold story about Matt Fitzpatrick that goes back almost a decade. He talks about what could be considered a recurring theme around recognition and the difficulties of transporting success from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

It was shared with Sportsmail several years ago by a friend of his at Hallamshire Golf Club in Sheffield and related to the fallout from Fitzpatrick winning the US Amateur Championship at Brookline in 2013.

That was a big problem seriously. Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, and Tiger Woods were previous champions. But an Englishman? Not for 102 years. So Fitzpatrick was feeling good about himself, an 18-year-old with a world of possibilities but still needing some extra cash to finish off the year, which meant he applied for a job at Tesco. You can probably guess the rest.

Fast forward a few years and Fitzpatrick is laughing. “I’d love to know who told you that,” he says. But it’s true, I didn’t understand. It would have been after the US Amateur and from memory I was pretty picky about the hours. I was saying, “I can’t do this time of day, but I have a little time in the afternoon.” It didn’t go my way, oddly enough.

It’s funny how scenarios can repeat themselves. It’s funny how life can work.

Two-time winner at Brookline, Fitzpatrick looking to build on his first big win

Having tasted remarkable success last June, he experienced something of a lull thereafter.

We’re talking about a cold winter’s evening in the UK and a beautiful morning in Florida. Fitzpatrick is chatting with Sportsmail via video call on his way to play a few holes as he prepares for the meaty part of a big new season, which intensifies Saturday with the Players Championship at Sawgrass, that self-described fifth major.

This time, a year ago, he would have had a minor presence on golf’s radar. But he’s noticed that people look at him differently these days and have since he fired a shot out of a bunker in June.

What a beauty that was and what a moment. It was Brookline again, the last hole of the US Open with a one-shot lead, and he had finally given in to the suggestions of the wonderful man in his bag, Billy Foster, to hit a three-wood. The driver, his weapon of choice all week, would be unnecessarily risky, so yeah, okay, three woods it was.

And he went straight into the trap, a grassy lip close enough to swallow anything, and with it all those dreams. Taking a quick look at the lie, Foster’s heart sank. But Fitzpatrick hit a 9-iron onto the green from 161 yards out and led the way to a major title with two putts.

For many who care about such debates, it was some of the best sports drama in 2022, indeed one of the best British sporting achievements in recent years.

Which brings us back to the acknowledgment, or rather the curious lack of acknowledgment from the BBC’s panel of sports personalities, which did not include Fitzpatrick in its list of six in December.

He’s laughing again, this 28-year-old from Sheffield. He couldn’t care less.

“It doesn’t bother me in the slightest really,” he says. “Maybe 10 years ago, when I remember watching Sports Personality, because I was home more often and tuned in to the BBC, it might have bothered me a bit, but it really doesn’t. I haven’t lost any sleep over it.

He’s a good guy, Fitzpatrick. People who know him tend to like him and he always has.

Fitzpatrick said he didn’t mind being snubbed for Sports Personality of the Year.

He’s just focused on enjoying the most successful season he can before a jam-packed few months.

They admired the methodical grind of the skinny kid who had gold in his iron game but came up short off the tee in an age of monsters. They admired that for every shot from the age of 15 to now, casual or competitive, he has noted down his yardage, conditions, club and score and the progress gleaned from being a ‘data nerd’ with braces. They admired that he adopted a new swing technique from a biomechanics guru and scored an extra 20 yards off the tee, when he had already figured out that an extra 1 mph in swing speed from him was worth two yards down the course and 10 yards. . in the field it was worth 0.4 strokes per round.

They admired that he crosses his hands while jumping and found success there as well.

Now that all the experiments and bribes are paying off, with a specialization in the stock market and a world ranking that currently sits at 12th, people like how little everything affects them. But that has also been a journey.

When we speak, Fitzpatrick is in a reflective mood about the months that followed a breakthrough.

Perhaps unsurprisingly there have been emotional ripples.

“I remember after winning obviously there was incredible excitement, joy and happiness,” he says. ‘But there was definitely a bit of relief there, too. It’s a major, we dream about it, and getting one was huge for me. I had moments earlier in my career where I was worried[about not reaching his potential]so winning was a nice feeling.

“Occasionally I find myself thinking, ‘Oh yeah, I won the US Open,’ and you realize very occasionally when you’re walking around that people look back and do a double take.

But those months later, and we’re talking about a while ago, it was an interesting time for me, a little bit different. I don’t know exactly what it was, but after the US Open, I felt like my time was much more important to me. I wanted to spend time with the people I wanted to spend time with.

“Before it was always golf, golf, golf, practicing all the time. After winning it was like, “There’s more to life than just golf.” It was difficult at first. I remember having a conversation with my best friend about how he was struggling a bit with motivation and feeling a bit flat and wanted a break to do my thing for a bit. I think it’s natural to some extent.

It’s a familiar feeling to many athletes who have climbed their respective mountains. For Fitzpatrick, having spent Christmas watching Sheffield United, among other things, the relief is that those wobbles have passed before a great season that includes the major leagues and a Ryder Cup in Rome. All that against the politics and dramas of LIV.

Within the storm of the latter, Fitzpatrick has been a fascinating if reluctant voice. He has previously spoken of turning down an offer for the breakaway series, favoring ‘legacy and trophies’, but has also admitted in interviews to having a natural curiosity about the exact dimensions of his proposal.

One was made to him and his touring pro brother, Alex, before their US Open victory, and Sportsmail heard a rumor that it was under $10 million.

“It wasn’t that, it was much less than that,” says Fitzpatrick, who, like many golfers, has grown weary of a debate that has dominated his sport.

“I’ve told a few people that I just want to play golf and you get a little tired talking about it,” he says. “We’re at a point where I don’t know the answers and I don’t really know how everything is.”

That said, and with all the legal unknowns as to whether the LIV Rebels can join him on Luke Donald’s European Ryder Cup team, Fitzpatrick reiterates that he would have no problem siding with them against the USA.

It’s an idea Rory McIlroy personally couldn’t stomach, but for Fitzpatrick, twice on the wrong side of heavy defeats in his two Cup games, the needs are a little simpler.

“I just want to win,” he says. “I’ve been on two losing teams and it’s tough, so that’s probably one of the reasons why I’m pretty good having the best players.” I want to know how it feels to be on a winning team!’ For now it is an unchecked box and one that is among others in his broader hopes for his career.

“Winning a major was always the goal,” he says. ‘Literally one. Getting it was a big step because I had never really challenged for one before.

‘I got a fifth at the PGA of USA and a bit of a backdoor top 10 in 2016 at the Masters, but you get one and it opened up the debate in my head of, ‘OK, what’s next?

‘

‘The easy answer is that I want to win as many as possible, but they don’t just happen. It’s hard. If I was lucky enough to get to six, that would be fantastic.

Fitzpatrick, unlike Rory McIlroy, would have no qualms about LIV players lining up alongside him at this year’s Ryder Cup.

Fitzpatrick said he just wants to win, and that’s why he’s okay with having them there.

That would tie him with Sir Nick Faldo as the most successful English golfer in history, no easy goal in this of all sports.

‘Yeah, six was a bit of a magical number that my manager and I came up with once, that if you have six you’re at a different level of the sport.

That would be a dream, but I’m a realist. It is very, very difficult. But we have to try something, right?

Pull it off and you could even make the Sports Personality of the Year shortlist.