Matt Fitzpatrick has dreamed of winning at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina ever since his family started vacationing there when he was six years old.
On Sunday, with his parents in his gallery, Fitzpatrick joined the list of winners to wear the champion’s tartan jacket by sticking a 9-iron from 186 yard to inches on the famed 18th hole, the third playoff hole, to beat Jordan Spieth and win the RBC Heritage for his second win on the PGA Tour.
“I think I can retire now. This one is the one that I’ve always wanted to win,” Fitzpatrick said. “There isn’t a higher one on my list to win than this one, and that’s the truth. My family can tell you that, and my friends can tell you the same thing. This place is just a special place for me, and it means the world to have won it.”
England’s Fitzpatrick, the reigning U.S. Open champion, shot a final-round 3-under 68 for a 72-hole total of 17-under 267. He also climbed to a career-best of eighth in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Fitzpatrick, 28, who carried a head cover of Hilton Head Island’s iconic candy-cane striped lighthouse on his driver this week, matched Spieth with a birdie at 15 and tied him for the lead with another circle on the card at 16 to improve to 17 under.
“He snuck in and played some tremendous golf,” Spieth said.
Fitzpatrick held the 54-hole lead after shooting a third-round 8-under 63, his lowest round on the PGA Tour, which included a hole-out eagle at the third. On Sunday, he made birdie at two and clenched his fist when he canned a 36-foot par putt at the third from off the green to maintain the lead.
“That may be bigger than the hole out,” CBS’s Colt Knost chimed in.
Meanwhile, Spieth, winner of 13 Tour titles, was attempting to defend a title for the first time in his career and came out charging with four birdies in his first six holes to erase a two-stroke overnight deficit.
RIGHT AT IT 🎯
What a golf shot @MattFitz94 pic.twitter.com/zLQQGBxC9R
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) April 16, 2023
On a mostly sunny but windy day with it blowing out of the southwest, Spieth jumped in front at No. 7 when Fitzpatrick failed to get up and down from the left greenside bunker. It was his first bogey in 30 holes and proved to be his last of the day.
For much of the day, Spieth’s chief opponent for the tartan jacket appeared to be Patrick Cantlay, not Fitzpatrick, which was shaping up as a rematch of last year’s playoff when Spieth made birdie on the first extra hole to win the title.
But there were a few dicey moments on the back nine for Spieth, who closed in 66. Ever the escape artist, he drove into the water guarding the left side of the 10th hole, took a penalty, dropped and drilled his third shot to 8 feet and saved par.
Cantlay caught Spieth with a pair of birdies at Nos. 9 and 10. But Spieth opened up a two-stroke lead when he stiffed his approach at 13 and Cantlay made a 3-putt bogey. Both players had tricky chips at the par-3 14th that raced by the hole, with Cantlay’s barely staying dry by lodging between the wooden bulkhead of the green and a railroad tie. They both made bogeys, and the second straight bogey for Cantlay eventually left him a shot out of a playoff (68) and alone in third.
Xander Schauffele made a late charge with three birdies in his final four holes to shoot 66 and finish a stroke behind Cantlay in fourth. World No. 1 Jon Rahm, who won the Masters a week ago, shot a final-round 68 and finished T-15.
BRUTAL.@JordanSpieth had this putt to win.
Spieth and Fitzpatrick will play on @RBC_Heritage. pic.twitter.com/tAD8FVQhNk
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 16, 2023
On the first playoff hole, Spieth lipped out a 13-foot birdie putt at 18 to win and dropped his putter and grabbed his head with both hands in disbelief.
“I think if I hit the same putt 10 times, it goes in eight times,” Spieth said. “It should go left at the very end there on the grain. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
On the second playoff hole, both players hit beautiful tee shots at the par-3 17th and again Spieth had a chance to win but missed from just inside 10 feet to send the playoff to a third hole. Given a third lease on life, Fitzpatrick had a perfect number and took care of business with a 9-iron every bit as good as the one he hit to sew up his victory at the U.S. Open at The Country Club in June. Walking to the final green at Harbour Town with caddie Billy Foster, Fitzpatrick couldn’t help but reflect on how meaningful this week had been to him.
“I said to Billy, you know, it doesn’t get better than this,” Fitzpatrick said. “Walking down here just looking around, it’s a course I dreamed of playing when I was young…Yeah, this one means more than anything.”
