Two weeks ago, Matt Fitzpatrick helped his brother Alex earn his PGA Tour card through 2028 with their dual victory at the Zurich Classic pairs event.
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This week at the Truist Championship in Charlotte, they’ll play alongside each other as full-time PGA competitors for the first time at Quail Hollow Club.
For Matt, who has much more PGA Tour experience while Alex was playing full-time on the DP World Tour until his Zurich victory, the 31-year-old feels an obligation to take his brother, who is four years younger, under his wing.
“Definitely. I think it would be wrong of me not to (play practice rounds) with him and help him out as much as I can. He’s been thrown in the deep end straight away and it’s all happening very fast so I feel like I have an obligation to help him too,” Matt Fitzpatrick said. “I’ve already said to him, ‘If you don’t want that, you can tell me to mind my own business.’ I don’t want to feel like I’m getting involved in all these decisions and stuff, that’s his thing. I just kind of want to offer my two cents, if you like, and see where it goes.”
Alex did plenty well without his brother around last week at the Cadillac Championship, finishing in a tie for ninth in his first event since earning his card.
Matt took last week’s signature event off after winning consecutive events the prior two weeks at the RBC Heritage and Zurich. While it was a week away from golf, it was not the celebratory week off people may have expected given his impressive recent form.
“I spent last week at home in Florida with my wife and my parents. We had a little bit of off-course stuff to do with the house that I bought and stuff,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think that kind of occupied me for most of the week, which was nice to not have to think about golf for a little bit.”
Matt’s debut win on tour came at the 2022 U.S. Open and he followed with a 2023 win at the RBC Heritage. An extended drought without a title followed, though, as he went winless until this March’s Valspar Championship.
His three wins in a span of five weeks are more than he had in his first 11 years on tour combined, sending him surging up to fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking.
“My DNA is definitely different. The makeup of my game at that point in time was pretty much great driving of the golf ball, like really, really, really good. I was long and straight at that point. I hit my irons pretty well at that point too,” Matt Fitzpatrick said of reflecting on how his game has changed since his U.S. Open victory four years ago. “I would say now I feel like I’m driving it probably just as well, maybe not quite as long, but I’m driving it just as straight if not straighter and my irons are another level above. So I feel like that combination alongside me putting well, which has always been a strength in the past, is obviously a nice mix.”
Matt also has recent success at Quail Hollow, finishing in a tie for eighth at last year’s PGA Championship at the same course.
