By Ron Green Jr.
When Matt Fitzpatrick watches video now from his victory in the 2013 U.S. Amateur at The Country Club, the smile comes from more than just the golf he played with his 14-year-old brother, Alex, as his caddie.
“I’ve watched the replays of it and to see how small he is and how small I am, it’s a crazy viewing experience, really,” Fitzpatrick said in a recent USGA retrospective.
Fitzpatrick was thin and somehow looked younger than his 18 years when he beat Oliver Goss, 4 and 3, while his brother, who recently completed a stellar collegiate career at Wake Forest, was just 14.
Nine years later, Fitzpatrick returns to Brookline, Massachusetts, carrying the memories of that charmed summer. The golf course itself will be somewhat different next week after a Gil Hanse restoration project that includes adjustments to the routing, and Fitzpatrick has grown into a prominent player on the professional stage.
Fitzpatrick owns seven wins on the European Tour, but he has yet to break through on the PGA Tour despite climbing to 15th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
When Fitzpatrick teed it up in the U.S. Amateur nine years ago, he was the second-ranked amateur in the world and had a simple goal.
“My thing was to have a good result to cement my place in the Walker Cup, and that was the goal,” Fitzpatrick said. “I knew that probably making the match play and maybe getting through the first round would probably be enough.
“I played some really good golf that week, and I think that was it. It was purely just this match and then on to the next one and the next one. It was simply one match at a time, and I was driving the ball well and chipping and putting it well. That was the big thing for me that sort of got me through each round.”
In 10 tour starts this year, Fitzpatrick has six top-10 finishes, including a T2 at the Wells Fargo Championship last month. He also leads the tour in strokes gained total, ranking in the top 30 of every major strokes-gained category.
Born and raised in England, Fitzpatrick won the 2012 Boys Amateur Championship there. In 2013, he was low amateur in the Open Championship at Muirfield before going to The Country Club for the U.S. Amateur, a tournament about which he knew relatively little.
“My dad was the one who knew all about amateur golf and where to play and what tournaments to play, and I didn’t know anything,” Fitzpatrick said. “I knew what the big tournaments were in England, but I didn’t know what the big ones were all over the world.
“I felt like it was a hard golf course. The rough was up, the greens were fast. It was firm. It did remind me sort of English courses in the way it was designed. It was a fantastic golf course.”
After winning the U.S. Amateur, Fitzpatrick enrolled at Northwestern but stayed there for only one quarter before deciding to focus on amateur golf. He turned pro after the 2014 U.S. Open. In October 2015, Fitzpatrick picked up his first professional victory, at the British Masters.
He has grown into a force, playing on two European Ryder Cup teams and winning steadily on the European Tour. This season, he finished T14 at the Masters and T5 at the PGA Championship, at which he started the final round one stroke off the lead at Southern Hills but closed with a flat 73 that left him two shots out of a playoff.
“My driving was already a good strength last year, and putting has always been a strength of mine. We made changes with my short game and my irons in the winter. So far, I feel like they have paid off,” Fitzpatrick said.
“I think the big thing for me is my results showed that, but I feel it in my game as well. I feel like I can hit the shots the way I want to see, and so far, it's been a good year.”
This won’t be Fitzpatrick’s first trip back to The Country Club. He returned there a few months after his U.S. Amateur victory, and he played it again last summer, though not in U.S. Open condition.
“I think just having played the golf course so much, obviously it is going to be different. It's nine years later. Lots of things changed. My game's changed,” Fitzpatrick said.
“I just think having previous positive history on it, I feel like it gives me confidence to feel like … no one beat me that week. And you go into this week thinking you've played so well here before. It's one of those things you feel like suits you and it just gives you confidence going into the week knowing that you can do well.
“I sort of spoke a lot this year about playing golf courses that you're comfortable with, and that's sort of exactly what I've felt like with a lot of places, and I feel like this falls under that category, too.”
Top: Matt Fitzpatrick during the first round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday