Time to step out of big brother’s shadow
Walker Cup gives Alex Fitzpatrick chance to impress instead of Matt, writes James Corrigan
Alex Fitzpatrick will make history when he tees it up at Hoylake on Saturday as he emulates his sibling, Matt, and they become the first pair of brothers to have played for Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup since the Second World War.
However, for the 20-year-old it will feel like a “first” for a more personal reason. This time it will be Alex who the family will be watching in a big competition – not Matt.
Matt will stand proudly alongside Russ and Sue in the galleries at the Wirral links and the world No29 will doubtless attract plenty of attention himself, as a five-time European Tour winner with a Ryder Cup and more than £10million earnings to his name. Yet
Matt is determined not to divert the focus. “This week is about Alex and the team, not me,” he said.
Of course it is, but the curse of the younger brother with the successful elder is that they will always be measured by what has gone in the surname before. It has been that way for Alex ever since he was seen caddieing for Matt (below right) when as an 18-year-old he stunned America by winning the US Amateur and so earned a place at the Masters.
Alex was only 13 and his ceaseless enthusiasm that week at Brookline made for delicious pictures and headlines, particularly as the media discovered he was also a golfing prodigy. It was a storyline to which Mike Walker, one of Matt’s coaches, applied yet more intrigue by declaring: “Yes, Alex is the Serena of the family”. Walker’s tongue was firmly in cheek, but, as ever, the Americans took him at his word – there was an even better Fitzpatrick in the Sheffield pipeline.
Naturally, the hype was daft, not to mention unfair, but over the intervening years, Alex has coped remarkably with the expectation. He first represented England when he was 15, reached the quarter-finals of the US Amateur and shot 23-under to win the Yorkshire Amateur by 10 shots. That recordbreaking performance inspired Eddie Pepperell, the world No 43, to tweet: “Keep him amateur for as long as possible please, Matt. We don’t need another baby-faced Fitz winning out here just yet.”
Unsurprisingly, more than one management company has tried to persuade Alex to join the paid ranks, but he has so far stayed true to his life-plan. He is on a scholarship at Wake Forest University in North Carolina and has completed his first year, unlike Matt, who famously lasted just three months at Northwestern in Chicago before deciding to turn pro.
“Yeah, I do say to Matt that’s one-up to me,” Alex told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. “But I’m only joking because I can’t judge myself against him.”
He cannot, but others will. It is inevitable, especially as he possesses the talent. Pete Cowen, the renowned swing guru, has worked with both since they were young teenagers, and has a characteristically droll assessment: “Alex is an uncut diamond; Matt is a partially cut diamond. They are a pair of gems.”
They are close, as well. “It may sound odd, because he’s on TV all the time, but he’s just like a normal brother and the way I see it is that he is five years older than me and a bit better at golf,” Alex said. “We text and call each other all the time and talk about Sheffield United and he is very helpful and knowledgeable when I ask for golf advice. People ask if I get fed up being asked about him, but our relationship is only a positive. He has shown me the benchmark.
“Saying that, I am my own person and have to follow my own path. I can’t go out there thinking, ‘I’ve got to emulate him’. I do want to turn pro, absolutely, but when it’s right for me. At the moment I am only concentrating on helping GB and Ireland win this Walker Cup. Matt’s team were beaten in 2013, so it would be wonderful if I could have that over him. And, anyway, I can always say I hit it longer than he does.”