Big names, fairway bunker on final hole couldn't separate Matt Fitzpatrick from US Open history | Opinion
BROOKLINE, Mass. — One by one they surged near the top of the leaderboard in the chill of a raw, gray Sunday, only to fall back, unable to catch the uncatchable man at the 2022 U.S. Open.
Matt Fitzpatrick and The Country Club have quite a history, and nothing was going to separate them from each other, not Will Zalatoris, not Scottie Scheffler, not Hideki Matsuyama, not Rory McIlroy.
The 27-year-old Englishman who had never won on the PGA Tour before this weekend believes there is magic dancing in the fairways at this venerable club. He won the U.S. Amateur here in 2013. He has now won the U.S. Open here nine years later, becoming one of only three golfers in history to win an American amateur and Open at the same course, along with Jack Nicklaus and Juli Inkster.
“I didn’t want to say it, I didn’t want to jinx it, but I felt comfortable here all week,” Fitzpatrick said. “I really felt I had a chance all week. I felt this was going to be the time. I told myself the chance will come and it did and I took it.
“I’ve performed so well here in the past. I have such comfort on this golf course. The course suits me so well, suits my game well. I’ve been playing well for awhile and with more length (off the tee), it all fell into place.”
It was a brilliant recovery from a scene right out of a nightmare that sealed Fitzpatrick’s victory. Standing in a fairway bunker on 18 with a 9-iron in his hands and a precarious one-stroke lead to protect, Fitzpatrick landed a majestic approach onto the green as the crowd roared its approval and two-putted to win the U.S. Open by a stroke over Scheffler and Zalatoris. Fitzpatrick finished at 6-under for the tournament, firing three rounds of 68 as well as one round of even-par 70.
“If there was one shot I do not want, it’s a fairway bunker shot,” Fitzpatrick said afterward, “but it turned out to be one of the best shots I’ve hit, all time. When I saw it leave the sand and felt the strike, I knew it was good.”
Zalatoris, trying furiously to catch Fitzpatrick on that final hole, appreciated the moment even as it meant almost certain defeat for him.
“Matt's shot on 18 is going to be shown probably for the rest of U.S. Open history,” said Zalatoris, 25, who finished second at the 2021 Masters, second at last month’s PGA Championship and now tied for second here.
“I walked by it and I thought that going for it was going to be ballsy, but the fact that he pulled it off and even had a birdie look was just incredible.”
While that shot put a fitting punctuation mark on Fitzpatrick’s day, the story of his final round was this: he hit 17 of 18 greens, a stunning display of steadiness and nerve.
“I had so much patience today,” he said. “I thought, if I just stick in, if I hit 18 greens, I have a chance, and I nearly did it.”
He had his hiccups for sure, including three bogeys, two of them in succession on the 10th and 11th holes to fall behind Zalatoris by two shots, but even then, he never wavered on a day when most of the rest did.
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All week, the connection was made: here he was, the U.S. Amateur champion who won on this course nine years ago, back again. The Country Club prides itself on its history with amateurs, going back to the legendary victory of 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet at the 1913 U.S. Open, right here.
Fitzpatrick basked in that history and believed he knew the course better than anyone else.
“I certainly think it gives me an edge over the others, yeah,” he said Saturday night. “I genuinely do believe that. It's a real, obviously, positive moment in my career (winning the Amateur). It kind of kickstarted me. To come back here and play so well again, it kind of just gives me growing confidence round by round.”
He joked that now that he has won twice here, he is going to try "to get every tour event here now.”
That won’t happen, obviously. But this just did.
“I’ve won a major today,” Fitzpatrick said, grinning, almost disbelieving. “I’ve won a major.”