Fitzpatrick gets a weight off his golfing shoulders
OUT of the most bizarre of errors has come the timeliest of revivals for Matt Fitzpatrick, who has rediscovered his form and fixed his driver one month shy of the Masters.
Given his proximity to the lead after two rounds at the Players Championship, the Englishman can now laugh about a blunder that held him back for a year without him even realising it.
The ‘mistake that no one knew about’ was shared between rounds here at Sawgrass and related to an experiment he undertook last February, when the former US Open champion added weights to his clubs.
Having trialled the new approach for a month he decided to rip them off again, only he forgot to remove a four-gram bar from the handle of his driver.
He did not realise the oversight until his grips were changed last month and since then his play from the tee has improved dramatically.
‘I’ve only got myself to blame,’ he said yesterday, after adding a three-under-par 69 to his opening 66. With many of the contenders still on the course, Fitzpatrick was in the clubhouse on nine under, five behind leader Wyndham Clark, who has gone 65-65 through two rounds. Xander Schauffele was next best on ten under.
Detailing the moment of revelation, Fitzpatrick, renowned for his meticulousness, said: ‘I took it to Titleist, they regripped it for me and they’re like, “Oh, you know there’s a weight in there”. I almost had a heart attack.
‘Since I’ve taken it out I’ve driven it a lot better. I had it in when I won Harbour Town and won the Dunhill (both last year). Maybe I’d have won four times if I had it out!’
Fitzpatrick’s driving here has been substantially straighter, though it is his putting that has him among the leaders.
Fitzpatrick added: ‘I felt like I did everything well. I made a couple of putts when I needed to, drove the ball well and my approach play was good.’
A day after his rules controversy with Jordan Spieth, overnight leader Rory McIlroy made a turbulent start to his second round.
He opened with a bogey, got a shot back at the next, then had to move a frog off his ball before bogeying the third.
Three more birdies and a bogey had him out in one under, to lie at eight under overall. However two wild drives at 12 and 14 ended up costing him three shots, a birdie on 13 eventually leaving him on six under – eight behind Clark – after signing for a 73.
Séamus Power and Shane Lowry were three shots further back.
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler is ominously placed at eight-under after a 69, but there are some doubts over his fitness.
‘I hit a shot on my second hole and felt a little something in my neck,’ he said. ‘Most of the day I was pretty much labouring to get the club away from me.’