Fitzpatricks make history but who did parents watch?
The first English siblings to play in the same Open in 50 years, Matt gets the crowds yet Alex has mum and dad
After Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open champion, had completed his first round at Royal Liverpool, he was asked if he was now going to go and follow his younger brother Alex round as he undertook his debut outing in a major championship. After all, the Sheffield pair are the first English siblings to play in the same Open in 50 years. This was surely an achievement worth marking.
“No, I won’t,” Matt said, looking at his inquisitor as if they might be slightly unhinged. “I’ll let him do his thing. I’d only make it worse.”
There was, though, one piece of advice he did offer his brother on how to deal with the first day of his first Open: do not speak to the press after you have finished. There is enough to deal with without somebody’s mobile phone being shoved under your nose, he reckoned. Not that there were many seeking a comment from the younger Fitzpatrick. In truth, while neither had a disaster – Matt finished on one over, Alex on three over – the brothers’ efforts will not feature high in the headlines of this first day of the 151st Open.
Their parents, Russ and Susan, decided they would follow Alex. “The crowds with Matt, Jordan and Jason were just too big to get any decent viewing,” Russ said.
He was right: the numbers following Alex were substantially lower. That said, his group may have lacked the celebrity of his brother’s, but the vagaries of the draw threw up an intriguing mix: as well as Matthew Southgate, he was with the 22-year-old Rasmus Hojgaard, one of the Danish twins who qualified for the Open. Brothers in arms, indeed. Matt was drawn to play with Jordan Spieth, the 2017 champion, and Jason Day, who won the USPGA in 2015. But none of the distinguished threesome of major winners lit fireworks as they progressed, all of them finding the gorse or hooking drives into
the crowd, all delivering at least one double bogey.
The older Fitzpatrick got off to the worst start possible, hitting a television tower from the first tee. His body language at such an early setback was soon in reverse: his shoulders sagged and he slapped his thigh in frustration. And things hardly got better. At the 18th, his tee shot hit a fence and bounced high into the crowd, a piece of ill fortune that had him muttering and cursing as he was obliged to clamber over obstacles to retrieve his ball.
“It was a bit of a ‘meh’ round, really,” he said afterwards. “I just never got anything going, didn’t hit it close enough, didn’t drive it well.”
Not that he was lacking support. Despite being over par from the off, as he progressed round the course, the crowd were entirely, noisily, on his side. Cries of “Yorkshire” were frequent, as were the more Merseyside-inflected shouts of, “Go ’ed Matt, lad”.
Alex got off to a better start than his brother, making it to the green of the first hole without diversion, but the biggest difference between the Fitzpatricks, and perhaps the biggest mark of the gulf in their experience, was how they fared at the 17th. On first sight of it earlier in the week, Matt’s caddie Billy Foster had described the hole as “a championship killer”. And clearly the possibility of witnessing potential disaster appealed to the crowds.
Long queues had formed all day to gain entrance to the grandstand at a hole whose notoriety will only accelerate as the week goes on. Despite his caddie’s nerves, Matt played it to perfection, landing his tee shot in the middle of the green, before putting out one of only three birdies in his round.
“It’s a tough hole,” he said. “It’s going to sting.” And sting it did for Alex, who was in all sorts of trouble there to rack up a hapless six.
“We enjoyed it overall, but it was a real shame about 17,” said Russ. “We’re really proud of the way he bounced back with a birdie on 18.”
It was a finish that meant, for both Fitzpatricks, hope remains. The pair doubtless regrouped in the house they are sharing with their parents close to the course. And having played it once, things might well improve on their next round. You never know, Alex might even speak to the press after he has completed his turn today.