Europe's Matt Fitzpatrick Overcomes Ryder Cup Demons With First Win
ROME — Matt Fitzpatrick never found success in his two previous Ryder Cups.
In 2016 at Hazeltine, the Englishman failed to win with partner Henrik Stenson. In 2021 at Whistling Straits, two matches with Lee Westwood came up empty. Likewise, singles matches in both years.
Five matches and five losses were what Fitzpatrick had as his resume coming to Rome.
That all changed in the Friday afternoon fourballs when he paired with Rory McIlroy and finally won his first point in a 5 and 3 beatdown of Americans Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele.
In his third Ryder Cup, Matt Fitzpatrick finally got on the board with a point in Friday's dominant day for Team Europe.
Andrew Medichini/AP
“One of the greatest days I’ve ever had on a golf course,” the 2022 U.S. Open champion said after going 6 under in the first six holes of his match.
His wingman was just as proud.
“His first point for Europe, I’m glad I was with him to get it,” McIlroy said.
Fitzpatrick came to Rome in hopes of playing something other than foursomes, and talked with European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald about graduating to fourballs.
Donald was more than willing to oblige.
“It's a personal goal of mine to, one, play him in a fourball,” Donald said. “He had only played the foursomes the last two Ryder Cups.”
Fitzpatrick started his run on the 2nd hole, making a 21-footer, and then drained two 14-footers, a 13-footer for eagle and a five-footer to leave the 6th hole 5 up and with only the final score in doubt.
“He said 'sorry couldn't be more help,'” Fitzpatrick said of McIlroy. “He's just unbelievable. Made a putt for eagle on five, and he just stood there laughing said how good it was. Really, we hooked up so well today. It really was perfect.”
Fitzpatrick struggled with playing singles in previous Ryder Cups because in foursomes he didn’t get to play his own ball.
“In my opinion, you've got to play your own ball before Sunday, that's what I learned from the first one,” Fitzpatrick said. “I effectively played nine holes in 2016 because I only had half the shots in the morning on Saturday and didn't play Friday and didn't play Saturday afternoon.”
Fitzpatrick is a player that Donald believed can overcome his first two Ryder Cups, as others have in the past, and will be better for it.
“I told him many times, you look at some guys that struggled early in Ryder Cups in their career, Seve would have been one of them, you trace back to his first two Ryder Cups, I think he made a point,” Donald said. “Francesco (Molinari) had two half-points in his first two Ryder Cups and went 5-0 in Paris. It's his time to start writing the next chapter of his Ryder Cup history, and he started that today. “