AVONDALE, La. – Late on Sunday afternoon, Alex Fitzpatrick was on a flight from North Carolina to New Orleans when his older brother, Matt, the reigning U.S. Open champion, was in the thick of a back-nine battle with Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay at the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage.
“He made me pay $16 to watch that final round and the playoff,” Alex said on Tuesday.
Brotherly love, indeed.
At least it was worth it. Matt lofted a 9-iron within inches of the hole at the third extra hole to beat Spieth in a sudden-death playoff and claim his second Tour title in as many years. He’ll try to hoist trophies in back-to-back weeks at the 2023 Zurich Classic, teaming with his younger brother of four years for the first time in the two-man team event. How exactly did the partnership of Matt, who rose to a career-best eighth in the world this week, and Alex, 697 spots removed bit having recorded his first top-10 finish as a pro his last time out on the Challenge Tour, come together?
“Everyone was pestering me,” Matt said.
“That’s basically what it was. His coach, my mom and dad,” Alex said. “He was kind of forced into it a little bit. I can’t remember what I was doing but I received a text and it was like, ‘What are you doing on these dates?’ And half of me knew what it was after all the pestering. I thought we finally got through to him. I was like, ‘Nothing,’ because I knew what days they were, and he’s like, ‘Do you want to play? I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll check my busy schedule and make sure I can make it.’ ”
Matt described he and Alex, who played at Wake Forest University and was a two-time member of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team, as close despite being polar opposites.
“I’m organized, he’s unorganized. He’s happy, I’m miserable,” Matt said. “Yeah, that’s probably a good way to put it really.”
Alex first made an impression on the golf scene as his big brother’s caddie at the 2013 U.S. Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, which Matt went on to win at age 16. This year marks a decade from that launching pad for Matt’s career. Last summer, Matt returned and won the U.S. Open there in storybook fashion, with Alex in his gallery.
One of the benefits of being a major winner is being sought after to tee it up in tournaments around the globe, and to entice Matt to play this week the Zurich Classic wisely extended a sponsor’s invite to Alex, who is cutting his teeth on the DP World Tour and the Challenge Tour. The Fitzpatricks become the second brother duo to pair up since the tournament switched to a team format six years ago, following in the footsteps of Brooks and Chase Koepka, who finished T-5 in 2017 and T-22 in 2019.
“You don’t know how many of those you’re going to get,” Matt said, referring to opportunities to tee it up alongside his brother. “For me, obviously I’m going to have to admit it now in front of everyone, but yeah, it was a no-brainer for me. It was always one I was looking to try and play.”
What’s the Team Fitzpatrick game plan for this week?
“Hopefully I kind of piggy-back off him this week, and yeah, we kind of ham-and-egg it and hopefully a good result at the end of the week,” Alex said.
“Ham-and-egg it,” said Matt, who lasted all of three months at Northwestern. “Wow, you turned very American in your four years at college.”
Matt said his brother knows how to make birdies in bunches, which should serve them well in both four-ball and alternate shot formats being used this week. “If I can kind of just steady the ship, I’ll just let him loose at trying to make some birdies,” Matt said. “I’m really proud of where his game is at and how much he’s improved. I do believe that he’s got a lot of talent, and hopefully soon he’ll start showing that.”
