Matt Fitzpatrick has criticized slow play at the Valspar Championship, despite carding birdies on No. 15 and another on the last to claim a one-stroke victory on Sunday at Palm Harbor, Florida. The Englishman finished runner-up in The Players Championship a week ago but redeemed himself on Sunday as he finished one stroke better than David Lipsky to secure his third victory on the PGA Tour.

Fitzpatrick: “Slow Play Knocks You Out Of Your Rhythm”

Fitzpatrick grew visibly frustrated with the pace of his playing partner, Adrien Dumont de Chassart, during the closing round. The 31-year-old had already played his approach shot and even walked up to the green, yet he still had to wait for three minutes before Dumont de Chassart hit his second shot. At one point, the delay became too much for him to ignore, and he approached a rules official to raise his concern. That led to the Tour giving Dumont de Chassart a warning.

“That was really frustrating,” the 31-year-old Englishman said. “It was slow today. I felt like there was a lot of stop/start. Yeah, just, you know, just not ready. When you’re not ready to play a golf shot, it gets frustrating after a while. Particularly when you’re playing well yourself, or you’re in contention or whatever it is. There’s definitely, you know, it definitely knocks you out of your rhythm. Because you hit, you walk to it, you kind of think about it, you hit again, and you go.

Fitzpatrick Ends Three-Year Wait For PGA Tour Victory

Slow play has been one the biggest issues in the past few years and the PGA Tour has responded by increasing its measures to speed up the pace of play. The 2026 PGA Tour player handbook states that a player only has 40 seconds to play a shot but can take up to 50 seconds under a few exceptions. Still, excessive shot times apply when a player exceeds “120 seconds for the first player in a group to play a stroke; 100 seconds for subsequent players in the group to play a stroke.” The accumulation of excessive stroke times can lead to fines, penalties and a possible disqualification.

This isn’t the first time that Fitzpatrick complained about slow play. The 31-year-old called slow play “appalling” in 2023, and then he described the Tour’s response to his complaints as “pathetic” in 2024 after nothing was seemingly done about it. Fitzpatrick has also repeatedly flagged the issue when paired with slower players. Despite this, the pace of play didn’t stop Fitzpatrick as he shot 68-69-68-68, finished at 11 under, and earned $1,638,000 and 500 FedExCup points. This was also the Englishman’s first win on the PGA Tour since 2023.

Main Photo Credit: © Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images