{"id":3713,"date":"2025-07-18T17:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T17:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3713\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T17:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T17:38:09","slug":"open-championship-co-leader-matt-fitzpatrick-can-now-say-his-struggles-are-behind-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/3713\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Championship co-leader Matt Fitzpatrick can now say his struggles are behind him"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of Round 2 of the 2025 Open Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland \u2014 Matt Fitzpatrick logs every shot he hits into a database. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s in a practice round or a tournament: the total yardage, end result, lie, wind direction, all of it. The 30-year-old Englishman has been collecting this data for 15 years.<\/p>\n

So when patterns start to emerge, Fitzpatrick can easily identify and diagnose his game\u2019s issues. He knows exactly what his weaknesses are. At all times. That also means he knows when he has reached his weakest \u2014 ever.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick, co-leading the Open Championship at Royal Portrush after a morning round of 67, didn\u2019t need to rack his brain to pinpoint that moment. The former U.S. Open champion felt like he hit rock bottom 122 days ago. But in the months that followed, he found a new coach, a new caddie and a groove that has him at the top of the leaderboard in County Antrim.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really bad,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t find the face with the ball. It was just not good.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March at The Players Championship, Fitzpatrick shot rounds of 78 and 72. He lost nearly three shots to the rest of the field in strokes gained, with his chipping remaining the only positive category on his statistics chart. A few days later, he broke up with his caddie of six years, Billy Foster. The next tournament, with a new caddie, Dan Parratt, he did it all over again. Negative strokes gained. A missed cut. A definitive sign: Fitzpatrick was in a bad place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the lowest I\u2019ve been in my career. Statistically, it could be the worst run that I\u2019ve played,\u201d he said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t feel good or know where it was going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calamity Corner class. Matt Fitzpatrick makes birdie to tie the lead.<\/p>\n

Listen in on The Open Radio. https:\/\/t.co\/5ezloDplEL<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/79vfrabD7q<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Open (@TheOpen) July 17, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Since Fitzpatrick\u2019s career-altering U.S. Open victory in 2022 at The Country Club, he has won once in the U.S. and once in Europe, both in 2023. The 2024 season was different. Fitzpatrick couldn\u2019t win, and his rankings plummeted; he started the year at No. 8 in the world and ended at No. 43 and had to dig to make the PGA Tour\u2019s FedEx Cup top 50.<\/p>\n

Somehow, in 2025, things got even worse. In his first seven starts of the season, Fitzpatrick posted one top-25 finish, missed three cuts and failed to crack the top 40 three times. His iron game, which once helped him win a major championship, was starting to drive him sideways.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick didn\u2019t seek out a coaching change as much as the transition to a new voice became an unfortunate necessity. Swing coach Mike Walker originally started working with Fitzpatrick when the latter was 14 years old, through his U.S. Amateur win and into his PGA Tour career. But this year, Walker has been unable to travel with Fitzpatrick, taking leave due to personal reasons.<\/p>\n

So Mark Blackburn \u2014 considered one of the best coaches in the world \u2014 entered the picture. Before any final hiring decisions, Blackburn wanted to call Walker and speak to him one-on-one. Then he rang Alex Fitzpatrick, Matt\u2019s younger brother, to make sure he was comfortable with Blackburn coaching both brothers simultaneously. Eventually, he checked all his boxes and got to work, especially on Matt Fitzpatrick\u2019s iron game. Blackburn\u2019s instruction gave him the ingredients to hit the shots he wanted to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re developing that rapport. It\u2019s like dating someone,\u201d Blackburn says. \u201cYou learn how to deal with them, and it seems to be going really well. He started playing really, really nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackburn and Fitzpatrick are 12 weeks into their relationship. The results have come quickly, including a T8 at May\u2019s PGA Championship and back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Rocket Classic and the Scottish Open coming into this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to understand my tendencies a lot better to understand what I need to do to fix that,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cKind of unfortunate circumstances in a way \u2014 well, very unfortunate circumstances, really \u2014 but I started working with Mark Blackburn, and he\u2019s given me a lot of time. I feel like just a bit of change of information has made me understand myself a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Matt Fitzpatrick\u2019s opening 67 puts him into contention at Royal Portrush. (Andy Buchanan \/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The levelheadedness of a golfer with direction was on full display at Royal Portrush on Thursday. Fitzpatrick fired the lowest opening round of his major championship career. Fitzpatrick says he doesn\u2019t even enjoy links golf, even though he has one of the lowest ball flights in the pro game and can easily keep his ball under the Royal Portrush gusts. It doesn\u2019t matter. The nascent momentum doesn\u2019t look to be stopping anytime soon. Fitzpatrick is reaching the light at the end of his long tunnel of lows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve just had more consistency, and from there, from consistency, you can kind of build confidence and keep calm,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick\u2019s opening 67 was aided by an eagle on the par-4 11th and a miracle at Calamity Corner, the infamously difficult par-3 16th. Fitzpatrick, whose ball trundled into the ditch you simply don\u2019t want to find, chipped from the steep hillside and celebrated as his ball slam-dunked into the cup.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Fitzpatrick walked the fairways with the kind of vocal support you\u2019d expect for an Englishman at an Open Championship. But that scene was made even better with the knowledge that four months ago, Fitzpatrick wouldn\u2019t have been able to fathom that this start was possible for him. Now, he doesn\u2019t have to. Fitzpatrick\u2019s climb back to form is well on its way.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Richard Heathcote \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n