Matthew Fitzpatrick: Europe’s Next Superstar

Young Matthew Fitzpatrick’s rapid rise through the ranks of pro golf has been enormously impressive.

Matthew Fitzpatrick looks positioned to make some big moves. The European Ryder Cup team has featured a fairly stable roster for the past several years. But a few would-be newcomers have put themselves in a great position to qualify for the 2016 exhibition.

That list includes newly minted Masters champion Danny Willett and three-time European Tour winner Andy Sullivan. However, perhaps the most interesting prospect is Matthew Fitzpatrick, a 21-year-old Englishman who’s been turning heads all over the world with his polished game and strong finishes.

Fitzpatrick won two events before turning pro, including the 2013 U.S. Amateur. His potential was never in doubt. However, we’ve seen a few top-tier amateurs struggle to deliver on their potential in recent years, including U.S. Amateur winners Kelly Kraft and Steven Fox, so success at that level is no guarantee of a smooth transition to the professional game. Fitzpatrick didn’t have that problem, however – in fact, he is a far more finished product than most of his peers.

His U.S. Amateur win was impressive, but Fitzpatrick’s rise to the top 50 of the world rankings really begins last year. As a European Tour rookie, he got off to a bad start, but his luck began to change in the spring. Over one three-month stretch, he notched five top 25s in seven starts, his first display of consistency on the top level.

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Six weeks later, Fitzpatrick finished second to Willett at the European Masters, moving into the world’s top 150. After logging two more third-place finishes, he finally came away with what he’d been trending towards: a victory. After opening with a 64, Matthew Fitzpatrick went wire-to-wire to win the British Masters, bringing him up to 59th in the world and giving him a two-year exemption on the European Tour. He wasn’t done; he reeled off six more top 20s to finish the year, cementing his status as one of golf’s foremost young guns.

Thanks to his good play, Fitzpatrick has risen to the third spot on the European Points List for the Ryder Cup. If he holds his position, he’d be his side’s youngest player since Rory McIlroy first qualified in 2010, giving Team Europe a foundational piece for years to come.

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Matthew Fitzpatrick hasn’t been quite as prolific in 2016, going without a top 10 for the first three months. He recently notched his first of the year at the Masters, tying for seventh after a closing 67 – not bad for just his fourth major appearance. He’s certainly proved that he can get hot for prolonged stretches, so he should be able to put the slow start aside and parlay his strong week into another nice run.

Fitzpatrick’s early success bears some resemblance to the rise of another young star: Jordan Spieth. While that might seem like an uneven comparison, keep in mind that Spieth didn’t find his way to major glory until his third season on the PGA Tour. If Fitzpatrick keeps it up, he’ll be on the right track to win one of the big four before too long.

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Then again, we said the same thing about a young Sergio Garcia back in the day, and look how that turned out. It’s impossible to say how much success Matthew Fitzpatrick will enjoy in his career, but for now, we need only sit back and watch the rise of yet another promising young talent.