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By Joy Chakravarty
Drenched in sweat and besieged by fatigue, the already slight frame of Matthew Fitzpatrick seemed to shrivel even further as he came off the golf course six years ago on a hot September Dubai afternoon.
The then 20-year-old rookie pro was playing in a MENA Tour event. He had flown into the United Arab Emirates and headed straight to the now defunct Al Badia Golf Club for his Monday afternoon tee time, barely hours after finishing a Challenge Tour event in Kazakhstan.
Although hailed for his calm and collected methods on the golf course, the former amateur No. 1 and the 2013 US Amateur champion clearly displayed a sense of restlessness. The eagerness to secure his European Tour card was very apparent.
Fitzpatrick undertook the arduous schedule because Al Badia was the host venue for that year’s Challenge Tour Grand Final. The MENA Tour event could turn out to be a most useful reconnaissance trip.
As it happened, he failed to make it to the Grand Final that year. Only the top 44 in the Order of Merit qualified, and Fitzpatrick finished 48th. He needed a trip to the Qualifying School instead, where he secured 11th place to graduate.
Six years later, Fitzpatrick walked off another Dubai golf course, this time with his sixth European Tour title. It was his first win in nearly 27 months, a period during which he was high on the leaderboard several times on both sides of the Atlantic. But Fitzpatrick wasn’t unduly bothered by the drought.
“I never thought I was going to blow everyone away. ... I am just trying to improve every year.”
Matthew Fitzgerald
On Saturday, he tied for the lead at 11-under par and told the media he wouldn’t mind putting a couple of pounds backing himself for the title. That faith shone through in the final round as he galloped from the gates with four consecutive birdies, before adding another on the sixth hole. The birdies dried up after that and there was a late bogey on the 17th hole. However, he kept making crunch pars to keep the field at bay and win his second DP World Tour Championship title by one shot ahead of Lee Westwood.
Why just a couple of pounds?
“Yeah … that’s just the way I’ve been brought up,” Fitzpatrick said, “I’m not going to stand here and say, ‘Look at me, I’m the next best thing since sliced bread.’ That’s just me. It’s the way my parents have brought me up. It's the way my team is around me.
“When the highs are high, we don’t go too high and when the lows are low, we try not to go too low. I felt my game was nowhere to be seen at the Masters. I was struggling. Didn’t want to play (the) RSM (Classic) the following week. We just sort of treated it as a nice week.
“We spent some good time on the range and we put the offseason plan into place on things that Mike (Walker, his coach) saw in my swing and we took it from there.
“I definitely put it down to the work we’ve done in these three to four weeks. I’ve had some of the best warmups in my career this week in my opinion. I really was hitting it very, very well and felt very comfortable on the range, and taking it to the golf course.”
Having started the year ranked 26th in the world, Fitzpatrick was solid throughout the disrupted schedule and came to Dubai ranked 22nd. The win will improve him to No 16.
“I think I would have been disappointed” if he did not win, said Fitzpatrick, who finished second to Lee Westwood in the Race to Dubai and ahead of American Patrick Reed. “I already spoke with my team that I would be disappointed because I’ve not felt like I’ve contended enough this year.
“But the big positive that I was going to take away regardless of what happened today is that I really, really felt like I played well the first three days. The only holes that I felt in my game were my short game but I think it is quite tough to chip around here anyways with the grains.
“I just felt my game was in good shape and knew what I needed to work on and we were doing well with what it was. So to obviously pick up the win, as well, is a little extra special.”
Fitzpatrick said that not even in his wildest dreams did he imagine he’d have such a successful career when reminded of his trip to Dubai in 2014.
“I never thought I was going to blow everyone away,” he said. “I was just this amateur young kid coming out. I had done well as an amateur, but I had to prove myself as a pro. For me it was a case trying to take it tournament by tournament then.
“I am just trying to improve every year. I set high standards of myself, and honestly, I am very hard on myself. But in all seriousness, to be here at 26, I’m very, very happy.”