Where Tiger Woods identified Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 majors as his target to match and pass (not yet achieved), Matt Fitzpatrick has put the number of six as his career goal.
Six, you see, is the number of majors achieved by Nick Faldo – which, in the modern era, is the highest by a European men’s golfer – and Fitzpatrick, following on from his breakthrough major success in the US Open at Brookline, where a magnificent approach shot from the fairway bunker on the 18th to the green and a two-putt par gave him a closing round 68 for 274, a shot clear of Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler.
“Six, that’s the number . . . I’ve got a bit of a way to go, but it’s a good start,” said Fitzpatrick of discovering the art of winning.
He said: “You want to win more now, there’s no doubt about that. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, not trying to change things . . . it’s easy to still go off track. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing, and hopefully more will come. I’m delighted with one so far.”
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Indeed, the English man recalled a conversation he’d had with Shane Lowry as a key lightbulb moment in getting the mental approach to compete when things weren’t going well.
“After Shane won the Open, and we were playing somewhere, he was telling me a story, if he wasn’t playing well or something, he just said, it didn’t really matter because he’d think, ‘I’ve won a major, I’ll be using that one a lot for when things are going my way’,” recalled Fitzpatrick.
One area in which Fitzpatrick has improved hugely is in the area of driving distance off the tee, which he attributed to working with a biomechanist Sasho Mackenzie. “He gave me this speed stick called The Stack. I’ve been doing that religiously week-in and week-out. It’s like going to the gym basically, it’s a training programme and, I’ll be honest, it has worked wonders.”
Fitzpatrick, who moved to a career best 10th in the updated world rankings following his success, claimed that his fighting spirit had come from growing up in Sheffield, comparing himself to his football team Sheffield United as always been considered “underdogs” yet managing to achieve things.
“I just love winning. I absolutely love winning. I don’t care who it is, I just want to beat everyone. Although it doesn’t come across, like I don’t show it because I like to be quite reserved, I just love beating everyone. It’s as simple as that. Anyone else on tour would say the same thing. That’s why the guys are the best, and that’s why they play so well. Just love winning!”
Fitzpatrick has a well-scheduled two-week break off, and will next play in the two-day JP McManus Pro-Am Invitational at Adare Manor before competing in the Scottish Open and the following week’s 150th Open at St Andrews.
