Matt Fitzpatrick believes that the DP World Tour made a mistake by forming a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour.
The 2022 US Open champion is preparing to defend his Alfred Dunhill Links Championship title on the DP World Tour, and beforehand, he told reporters why he thinks the Europe-based circuit has had the rough end of the deal since they came together in 2020, and explained that the invites PGA Tour players recieved to the BMW PGA Championship at the expense of its own members was something that particularly rankled.
"I don't think the Tour should have gone with the PGA Tour," declared Fitzpatrick." I was pretty livid, to be honest, at Wentworth when I found out that there was a handful of PGA Tour players coming to play Wentworth, and at that point in time, not every person who kept their card last year got in the field, which I think is a disgrace.
"That's the flagship event. There's no invites given to European Tour players at The Players Championship. So why are we dishing them out for Wentworth?"
Despite his issues with the partnership, nowadays Fitzpatrick mainly plays on the PGA Tour, but he admitted that he has little option if he wants to achieve his goals.
He added: "Now I'm sat here as now mainly a PGA Tour nowadays, which people probably say, well, you don't come back and play anyway. Yeah, I understand that. But I think the way of looking at it is, there's not really been left with any option.
"If you want to achieve the things that you want to achieve in the game, you've got to play against the best players. You have to play where the best world ranking points are, and unfortunately with that, the money follows that."
This week's tournament, which sees each professional compete alongside an amateur, will be played against the backdrop of continuing uncertainty over the future of the men's elite game as talks continue between the DP World Tour, the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) behind LIV Golf over how the three circuits can coexist.
DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings will naturally be on site at the event, but a big twist came when it was confirmed that not only would PGA Tour commisioner Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan also attend, but they would be paired together for the opening round.
While that inevitably led to questions over what it could mean for the negotiations, Fitzpatrick was unmoved by the revelation. He said: "Yeah, I don't think they are going to decide the future of golf in five hours around Carnoustie."
He also feels trying to influence the outcome of the discussions isn't worth his time. "I think in terms of bringing the game together this week, I'm past the point of caring. I just don't care," he said. "Me saying things to the PGA Tour board, me saying things to the DP World Tour board, it's not going to change, so why am I going to waste my time talking about it?"
As for his game, Fitzpatrick will be hoping the event he won last year can kickstart a return to form after a poor season by his standards. He said: "Yeah, really poor. Really poor. Not what I wanted to achieve at all. Not coming into contention once, or probably once, to be fair. Yeah, just not at all what I wanted.
"It's been the hardest year of my career by a mile. You know, but not even close. It's been the worst. It's been my worst year on the golf course for sure results-wise. It's just obviously something that I've had to deal with. Something I've had to learn about."
Fitzpatrick tees it up alongside LIV Golf's Tyrrell Hatton in Thursday's opening round. They begin at 6.23am ET (11.23am BST).
