Lucky Break, Putting Fix Helps Matt Fitzpatrick Snatch RBC Heritage Lead

Tying his career low round, Fitzpatrick has flipped the script on his subpar putting season and leads Viktor Hovland by a stroke.

Matt Fitzpatrick grabbed the 36-hole RBC Heritage lead with a second-round 63. | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Matt Fitzpatrick felt he left some strokes on the table. So when he got to this week’s RBC Heritage, he had a chat with renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon. 

“Felt like we needed to really look into things and have a thought about what’s going to be different this week,” the Englishman said. 

Despite a recent hot stretch, Fitzpatrick is ranked No. 94 on the PGA Tour in strokes-gained putting. When he fell short by a stroke at the Players Championship last month, he lost 2.17 strokes on the greens. Then, when he won the Valpsar Championship the following week, that number increased to 2.76 strokes. In both of those tournaments, though, he was top 15 in strokes-gained approach. 

But the RBC Heritage has been a different story. Fitzpatrick is third in strokes-gained: putting and fourth in approach. 

That helped him shoot a career-low 63 at Harbour Town in Round 2 en route to snatching the 36-hole lead by a stroke at 14 under. 

“[Kenyon and I] touched on a few things and just feel like it’s given me a little bit more freedom, more than anything. With that obviously becomes more flow to the stroke, more flow to the routine. That’s sort of normally when I putt better.”

That was evident on the par-3 14th. The 2022 U.S. Open champion took advantage of a lucky break when his tee shot hit a tree, ricocheted onto the green and was saved from rolling in the water by a sprinkler head. He then made the 33-foot birdie putt. 

The break of the year? 😱

Matt Fitzpatrick with a wild sequence on 14 that leads to birdie and a three-shot lead @RBC_Heritage. pic.twitter.com/7JE4Ywbomz

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 17, 2026

“Didn’t quite do what we anticipated,” the 31-year-old said. “Felt like the shot I hit wasn’t great, but it wasn’t that bad, and then yeah, it’s obviously nice to get those breaks. You need those in golf. It’s not always going to go your way for 72 holes.”

And Fitzpatrick was aided by Davis Love III’s recent restoration of Harbour Town. 

“I’m biased; I’ve obviously putted so well,” Fitzpatrick said. “I felt like before [the restoration] they [the greens] were so subtle it was difficult to see any breaks. I feel like now maybe—I don't know exactly what he’s done, but I feel like there’s arguably a little bit more break in some of them, so it at least gives you a clearer picture of some of your reads.” 

One stroke behind Fitzpatrick is his European Ryder Cup teammate and fellow Valspar champion, Viktor Hovland. And like Fitzpatrick, Hovland is in contention because of his flatstick, ranking second in the field (Hovland is 81st on Tour in strokes-gained putting). 

“[My swing] wasn’t as good as yesterday,” said Hovland, who has one top 10 in seven starts this year. “All in all, not really. I hit some really poor tee shots that I kind of got away with, but at the same time, I was really happy with how I was able to stabilize the round and not let it get off the tracks, because in the past I could have done that.”

Hovland is three clear of Harris English, while Patrick Cantlay, Sepp Straka and Ludvig Åberg are T4 at 9 under. 

Fitzpatrick, who attended this tournament numerous times growing up, won the RBC Heritage in 2023 with a score of 17 under (he topped Jordan Spieth in a playoff). Already 14 under par halfway through the tournament, he won’t be taking his foot off the gas pedal this weekend. 

For good measure, the tournament scoring record is 22 under, set by Webb Simpson in 2020.

“I don’t know if 17 [under] is going to be enough this year, but you never know,” Fitzpatrick said. “The wind picks up this afternoon, it’s not easy, so we’ll see.”

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