On the verge of becoming a new father, Matt Fitzpatrick is reviving the fondest memories of his own childhood as he takes a three-shot lead into the final round of the RBC Heritage.<\/p>\n
The Sheffield man recovered from a slow start in the third round to post a 68 that leaves him on 17-under 196 going into Sunday as he looks to win the tournament for the second time in four years.<\/p>\n
Any win is a good one, of course, but Fitzpatrick has a particularly fondness for this week\u2019s venue Harbour Town because his family would regularly holiday there when he was a youngster.<\/p>\n
With 18 holes to play, the World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is solo second on 14-under with Brian Harman, Si Woo Kim and Sepp Straka sharing third on 13-under.<\/p>\n
History would suggest that the winner will emerge from those front runners because 26 of the last 30 winners at Harbour Town were within four blows of the leader.<\/p>\n
The four exceptions were all outside the top 10 at the 54-hole stage, but required either a leader losing his head or windy conditions to complete their fight back. The former could still happen, of course, but the weather is set to be no more than breezy.<\/p>\n
The transformation of Fitzpatrick\u2019s game since this time last year has been profound.<\/p>\n
From the 2024 RBC Heritage through the second week of May 2025, Fitzpatrick made 26 starts with just three top 20s \u2013 and only one of them a top 10.<\/p>\n
Since then, 24 appearances have reaped 16 top 20s, 12 of them top 10 and he\u2019s hunting a third win in that run.<\/p>\n
All aspects of his game looks solid and his confidence is sky high. This week he ranks seventh Off the Tee, 13th in Approaches, fifth Around the Greens and ninth in Putting. He struggled with his approaches for much of the third round, but two factors kept him in the game: he scrambled superbly and had the confidence to stay patient. He didn\u2019t necessarily improve with his approaches, but he drained two chips that earned him a birdie at 14 and an eagle at 15.<\/p>\n
Asked if there is any course on Tour he has a higher comfort level on than Harbour Town, he said: \u201cNot that I can think of really. I love it.\u201d Moreover, with his parents around this week, alongside his wife, they are spending quality time in a place they all love.<\/p>\n
That said, he is aware that he is in a place, now, that Scheffler has a higher comfort level with: being in contention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still nervous,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably different for Scottie and Rory, who are frequently in the mix. But the more you do it, I wouldn\u2019t say it ever gets any easier, but it might feel a little bit better, more comfortable, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
His record with a pre-final round lead (solo or shared) is a mixed bag. On the one hand, he has only twice finished worse than T2 from 15 such scenarios and seven times lifted the trophy.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the two exceptions have come in his last three instances: when a two-shot lead in the 2023 European Masters saw him fall back to third, three shots shy of a play-off. And when one blow clear in last year\u2019s British Masters before a 74 left him six back and T6.<\/p>\n
This is a wonderful opportunity for him to land a 13th career title and to do so in style on a favourite course going head-to-head with the world\u2019s leading golfer. He was briefly prices odd against last night but has settled at 4\/5.<\/p>\n
Behind him, SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER is prowling and three of the last four times he was second with 18 holes to play he won, including when four back in last August\u2019s BMW Championship. That time he hunted down Robert MacInytre \u2013 now he has another European to prey on. We can get the right side of 2\/1 for Scheffler and we\u2019ll take the 5\/2.<\/p>\n
The chasing pack includes Ben Coley\u2019s pre-tournament picks Harman and Straka. The former thrashed his way back into contention with a Saturday 63 and Straka is playing nicely. To contend he needs at least three parts of his game to be in good nick rather than two of them, as has happened so far.<\/p>\n
Harman likes being on a course that allows him to compete \u2013 he knows it and he\u2019s good at stepping up when the opportunity allows. He\u2019s hoping the wind has an impact, too. Both can get involved with good starts and here\u2019s hoping so.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll close with a two-ball double. First up, we\u2019ll take JT POSTON to beat Tommy Fleetwood. In terms of class, of course, the Englishman is better. But Poston loves a Sunday at Harbour Town. He\u2019s 5-for-5 at breaking 70 and 4-for-5 at breaking 68. Fleetwood is 2-for-5 at breaking 70 and 0-for-5 at going sub-68. <\/p>\n
We\u2019ll add SUNGJAE IM who has been made the outsider against Sahith Theegala. The Korean\u2019s form is what you\u2019d expect of a man coming back from injury \u2013 lots of good and bad. But Theegala is no model of consistency in form or in final rounds at Harbour Town (he has a 79 and a 65 in four rounds on the course). Im has carded 67 in his last three Sundays at Harbour Town. The double is 4.75\/1.<\/p>\n
Posted at 09:40 BST on 19\/04\/26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the verge of becoming a new father, Matt Fitzpatrick is reviving the fondest memories of his own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-540575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}