Matt Fitzpatrick put a finger to his ear in front of a pro-American crowd after he beat the world No1 Scottie Scheffler in a play-off to win his second RBC Heritage title.
The Sheffield golfer won his second event in a month — becoming the third Englishman behind Justin Rose (twice), Sir Nick Faldo and Luke Donald to win multiple times in a PGA Tour season — after holing a 12-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole in South Carolina.
Once again Fitzpatrick, who was a member of Europe’s Ryder Cup-winning team at Bethpage Black in New York last year, won against the backdrop of chants of “USA, USA”. He endured similar scenes against Cameron Young at last month’s Valspar Championship, and appeared to put his finger to his ear after securing victory here.
“Americans are incredibly patriotic. I guess the only issue is they just have shorter memories because we won in October,” Fitzpatrick, 31, said of Europe’s Ryder Cup triumph last year.
Fitzpatrick said feisty atmospheres are good for golfKevin C. Cox/Getty Images
“It didn’t get out of line in terms of no one was shouting on backswings or anything like that, which was great. I’m all for it. You want golf to have an atmosphere in my opinion. I grew up watching football. I’m paid so much money to be out there in front of those crowds, having them chanting at you every week, it’s a great feeling.
“However, there’s no better feeling than coming out on top against that. To describe it in my terms it’s kind of winning away against your biggest rival. Nothing to do with Scottie or the players. It’s the fans that have sort of spurred me on there.”
Fitzpatrick’s three-shot lead at the start of the day had been whittled down to one by playing partner Scheffler — runner-up at the Masters a week ago — by the final hole, where he fluffed a chip and bogeyed to drop into a play-off on 18-under after carding a 70 to the American’s 67.
World’s top ten
1) Scottie Scheffler (US)
2) Rory McIlroy (NI)
3) Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng)
4) Cameron Young (US)
5) Justin Rose (Eng)
6) Collin Morikawa (US)
7) Tommy Fleetwood (Eng)
8) Russell Henley (US)
9) Xander Schauffele (US)
10) JJ Spaun (US)
But a brilliant four-iron into the same green in the play-off was enough to see off Scheffler and move him up to No3 in the world rankings, the highest position of his career, and continue his improvement in form from 85th in the world last May.
“I feel like I can still improve. There’s areas that I want to get better at. I feel like I’m playing very well right now,” he added.