CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA | Matt Fitzpatrick sat behind a dais inside the media room at the Truist Championship Tuesday afternoon waiting on his brother, Alex, to arrive.
The Fitzpatrick brothers were due for an appearance on ESPN momentarily – the two of them staring into the same laptop screen during a shared interview – and the younger brother was still on his way to the media room.
“Does he know he’s supposed to be here?” Matt said, having recently finished his pre-tournament question-and-answer session with the gathered media.
A moment later, Alex came through the doors just in time and settled into a chair alongside his older brother. The Fitzpatrick brothers are the talk of the PGA Tour – along with Cameron Young – and this is their first week in the same event since they won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans two Sundays ago, fast-tracking Alex to full status on the tour.
Alex Fitzpatrick had been plotting his summer on the DP World Tour until everything changed with their team victory in New Orleans, suddenly thrusting him into consecutive signature events and the PGA Championship next week.
While they are bound by blood and their names on the Zurich Classic trophy, there is more than their four-year difference in age that separates them.
“We are very different. I kind of made the joke at Zurich a few years ago, he’s the happy, bubbly one, I’m the miserable one. Which kind of still stands, I guess,” Matt said.
“But he’s definitely just got such a great attitude. He’s always kind of bouncing, always so pleasant to be around. So nice to everyone. Not to say that I’m not, but he really is, he’s so polite. I think just when it comes to his golf game and everything, well, he’s way less analytical, he’s not really analytical at all, compared to myself.
“From what I’ve seen on the outside in the past few years, it’s kind of like turn up and go. As opposed I know where I’m going to be for every hour basically of the practice day.”
“I would hope that we’re just two normal people from Sheffield, England, two hard-working lads.” – Alex Fitzpatrick
Alex, who has stayed at his brother’s south Florida home at times while searching for his own American base, doesn’t disagree about their differences.
As for similarities?
“I would hope that we’re just two normal people from Sheffield, England, two hard-working lads,” Alex said.
Matt Fitzpatrick has won three times on the PGA Tour already this season, taking the Valspar Championship, the RBC Heritage in a playoff over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and the Zurich Classic with his brother. That’s three wins in his last four starts following a runner-up finish at the Players Championship in March.
He has climbed to fourth in the world – Cam Young replaced Fitzpatrick at No. 3 with his victory at the Cadillac Championship last week – and is enjoying the best stretch of a career that includes a victory in the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club.
Working with swing coach Mark Blackburn, committing to a left-hand-low chipping style and getting Phil Kenyon’s guidance on the greens, Fitzpatrick has transformed his game and his place in it over the last couple of years.
“Technically my DNA is definitely different. The makeup of my game at that point in time [2022] 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 said.
“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 … 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, you know, it’s a nice mix.”
Now, Alex is in the tour mix going forward. Alex won the Hero Indian Open on the DP World Tour earlier this year and was working on earning one of the 10 PGA Tour cards for 2027 through his Race to Dubai standing.
Some questioned if the younger Fitzpatrick warranted the two-year exemption and all that came with it because he had not been a PGA Tour member and won with a partner. Those questions fizzled out last week when Alex finished T9 at Doral, earning $500,000 playing against a stacked field.
The victory at New Orleans, accented by Matt’s brilliant bunker shot on the 72nd hole to set up his brother’s tap-in birdie putt to win, instantly changed Alex’s career path, earning him a two-year exemption and entry into the $20 million signature events.
Some questioned if the younger Fitzpatrick warranted the two-year exemption and all that came with it because he had not been a PGA Tour member and won with a partner. Those questions fizzled out last week when Alex finished T9 at Doral, earning $500,000 playing against a stacked field.
“I would say probably a little bit [of validation], playing against the best players in the world, and being around them all of a sudden on the range was pretty, was pretty cool, but also a lot for me,” Alex said.
“Because it was so new, it was just trying to adjust. I’m playing some decent golf at the moment, so I was happy that I managed to put up a good result. I feel like I do belong out here with some of my best golf and hopefully I can show that.”
Whether he does it like his brother or not.
Top: Alex (left) and Matt Fitzpatrick Photo: Chris Graythen, Getty Images
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