Matthew Fitzpatrick: Making the Most of a Sponsor Invite

Rookie Matthew Fitzpatrick is making good on his sponsor invite with rounds of 64 & 69 at the British Masters — what will he deliver on Moving Day?

Mid-way through the second round of the British Masters there’s quite a log jam at the top of the leaderboard and young Matthew Fitzpatrick is right in the middle of it. The rookie who’s playing the British Masters on a sponsor invite — he was the highest ranked player in the Race to Dubai who didn’t automatically qualify for entry into the British Masters — is currently sharing the clubhouse lead with Soren Kjeldsen at 9-under par.

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That could be temporary. Richard Bland is in the house at 8-under and Shane Lowery, Robert Karlsson and Bradley Dredge are at 7-under, so Fitzpatrick’s hopes for a wire-to-wire first European Tour victory are still 36 holes from being realized and he’s surrounded by plenty of competition.

But the youngest player in the field — Fitzpatrick is ten month younger than Paul Dunne and by the time he was born Miguel Ángel Jiménez had already won twice on The European Tour — is certainly making the most of this opportunity. He charged through the first round of the British Masters to a record-setting 64 and, with a second round birdie at the last, carded a 69 to hold on to a piece of the lead going into the weekend.

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Fitzpatrick’s already established an impressive list of golf creds. In a single semester of collegiate golf at Northwestern Fitzpatrick played 5 events, won once and finished in the top five three more times. He broke onto the global golf scene when he won the 2013 US Amateur Championship to become the first English winner of the event since Harold Hilton in 1911. That victory took Fitzpatrick to the top of the World Amateur Golf Rankings where he joined the likes of Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Matteo Manassero, Peter Uihlein and Victor Dubuisson as players who’ve reached the top of the amateur game since the rankings began in 2007.

Fitzpatrick’s one of the most accurate players on the European Tour, ranking in the top ten in both Driving Accuracy and Greens In Regulation. Along with South Africa’s Thomas Aiken, Fitzpatrick is currently hitting more than 70 per cent of fairways and 75 per cent of greens.

I’m fairly certain Fitzpatrick’s first pro win in right around the corner — it could come at Woburn this Sunday — and when it does Matt Fitzpatrick will become the youngest player in the top 100 of the Official Golf World Rankings. We can watch it happen. Golf Channel is providing daily coverage of all British Masters rounds.

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