DUBLIN, Ohio — DP World Tour journeyman Alex Fitzpatrick had scheduled a 9 p.m. flight from New Orleans to Istanbul to play in the Turkish Open.
He never made the Sunday evening flight.
Earlier that day in New Orleans, Alex teamed with his brother Matt to win the PGA Tour's Zurich Classic and, as a result, earned his PGA Tour card.
To some, the 27-year-old Fitzpatrick's ascension to the PGA Tour was on his brother Matt’s coattails, making the receipt of a PGA Tour card a bit unfair.
But the Wake Forest graduate has not let the whispers bother him, and since that win, his play, which has been stellar, has proved his almost two-month sojourn in America is deserved.
“I guess that was always the thing after we won. It was, like, ‘How is he going to do? Is he going to carry on playing okay?’” said Fitzpatrick after that win. “I think that the biggest thing I took really was the win in India. I felt like that was a big weight off my shoulders.”
Three weeks prior to winning in New Orleans, Fitzpatrick won the DP World Tour's Hero Indian Open. Combined with the Zurich Classic, the win set a record for brothers winning successive weeks on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour, with Matt winning the Valspar Championship in between.
After New Orleans, the Yorkshireman accepted PGA Tour membership. He went right to work proving he belonged: a T9 at the Cadillac Championship, a 4th at the Truist Championship, and a T75 at the PGA Championship.
The last four individual starts — in India and the three in the U.S. — moved Fitzpatrick from 196th in the world rankings to 88th. And a final-round 7-under 65 at The Memorial Tournament Sunday quelled further discussion of Fitzpatrick’s deservedness of a place on the PGA Tour as he moved to 73rd in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Oddly enough, Fitzpatrick did most of his work at Muirfield Village without a driver. He cracked the club's shaft after 13 holes of Thursday’s first round. Then, the backup driver sent to him didn’t work, and he was forced to play with a 3-wood for the 46 holes that required a driver.
During that stretch, Fitzpatrick was 8 under par.
“I would say it's my own fault because I carry a head rather than a shaft, mainly to keep the bag light for when I travel so I don't get charged excess baggage,” Fitzpatrick joked with a laugh. “But that's because I'm from Yorkshire.”
Living out of a suitcase, but with intentions of moving to Palm Beach, Florida, near his brother, Fitzpatrick looks ahead to a schedule that includes next week in Canada and then his first U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
“I went [to Shinnecock] last week, and it was unplayable,” Fitzpatrick said with a laugh, recalling his trip with his brother to this year’s U.S. Open venue. “It was blowing, like, 35 miles an hour, and there wasn't a ball that could hold the 11th green. We would look down and drop balls in flat spots, and everything just kept blowing off the green.”
To many, this week in Columbus was a U.S. Open setup, with the only thing missing being a major championship trophy.
For Alex Fitzpatrick, his game and attitude have never been more focused on the task at hand.
A win at Shinnecock by Fitzpatrick would be only the second time that brothers have won the U.S. Open. In 1899, Willie Smith won at Baltimore Country Club, and seven years later, in 1906, Alex Smith won at the Onwentsia Club outside of Chicago.
“I'm just happy to be here,” said Fitzpatrick after his sixth top-10 finish in seven starts. “It's been a crazy year for me, so I'm just trying to keep enjoying it.”