The sibling rivalry just might get kicked up a notch this weekend.
Since he’s four years older, Matt Fitzpatrick has never gone down to the wire in a major competition against his brother Alex. The two missed each other in junior competitions and have largely played on different professional tours.
But the sibling rivalry just might get kicked up a notch this weekend at the DP World Tour’s Omega European Masters in the idyllic backdrop of Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club in Switzerland.
With a 5-under 65 on Friday in the second round, Matt held on to a one-stroke edge over Alexander Bjork. But while the eight-time DP World Tour winner and 2022 U.S. Open champ is still battling his way into the European Ryder Cup team, brother Alex is just two strokes behind and firmly in the hunt.
This could conceivably bring plenty of stress to the whole family.
“It’s gonna be a nightmare for my parents,” Matt joked after the round.
For Alex, who shot a second consecutive 65 on Friday and now sits in a third-place tie with Frenchman Romain Langasque, the chance to push his brother is one he’s relishing.
“He’s my brother but he’s also a competitor so I’m still trying to beat him,” he said. “I shot five under and didn’t gain any ground today so that was a little frustrating. It would be good. I’ve played a little bit of golf with him now in competitive events and it would be fun to go against him.”
Alex continues to keep a hot hand after he captured a European Challenge Tour title in May. The Wake Forest product came in second in the recent ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland and finished T-14 in last week’s Czech Masters.
And while Matt thinks a head-to-head scenario could create major butterflies for parents Susan and Russell, Alex feels a final-round pairing could be beneficial to the duo.
“Our parents would probably be happy because it would mean less walking, they can walk one round instead of two,” he said.
Matt is almost a lock to be selected to the European side for the upcoming Ryder Cup, although he’s a winless 0-5-0 in two previous appearances.
But he has added some speed to his game and knows how to handle the pressure of the sport’s biggest moments. The 29-year-old Englishman will feature on this team for the foreseeable future and his familiarity with the course won’t hurt — he finished runner-up at the 2022 Italian Open at Marco Simone after losing a playoff to Robert MacIntyre.
A look back at the golf star siblings over the years.
Matt Fitzpatrick isn’t the only member of his family who is really, really good at golf.
The winner of the 2022 U.S. Open has his brother, Alex Fitzpatrick, who played really well at the 2023 Open Championship. And they teamed up together to play at the 2023 Zurich Classic, where Matt described how different they are from each other.
“I’m organized, he’s unorganized. He’s happy, I’m miserable,” Matt said, via Golfweek. “Yeah, that’s probably a good way to put it really.”
The opening round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana is in the books, and it was a doozy.
Matt Fitzpatrick and his brother Alex got off to a hot start, signing for a best-ball 10-under 62 and were tied for the clubhouse lead when they walked off the golf course.
The unlikely pairing of Keith Mitchell and Sungjae Im, a story you have to read to believe, was another team that crossed the double-digit threshold and finished the day 10 under alongside David Lipsky/Aaron Rai and Henrik Norlander/Luke List.
However, after 18 holes, Beau Hossler/Wyndham Clark and Brandon Matthews/Sean O’Hair lead at 11 under.
If you missed any of Thursday’s action, no worries, have you covered. Here are several takeaways from the first round of the Zurich Classic.
“You don’t know how many of those you’re going to get,” Matt said of his chance to tee it up alongside Alex.
AVONDALE, La. – Late on Sunday afternoon, Alex Fitzpatrick was on a flight from North Carolina to New Orleans when his older brother, Matt, the reigning U.S. Open champion, was in the thick of a back-nine battle with Jordan Spieth and Patrick Cantlay at the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage.
“He made me pay $16 to watch that final round and the playoff,” Alex said on Tuesday.
Brotherly love, indeed.
At least it was worth it. Matt lofted a 9-iron within inches of the hole at the third extra hole to beat Spieth in a sudden-death playoff and claim his second Tour title in as many years. He’ll try to hoist trophies in back-to-back weeks at the 2023 Zurich Classic, teaming with his younger brother of four years for the first time in the two-man team event. How exactly did the partnership of Matt, who rose to a career-best eighth in the world this week, and Alex, 697 spots removed bit having recorded his first top-10 finish as a pro his last time out on the Challenge Tour, come together?
“Everyone was pestering me,” Matt said.
“That’s basically what it was. His coach, my mom and dad,” Alex said. “He was kind of forced into it a little bit. I can’t remember what I was doing but I received a text and it was like, ‘What are you doing on these dates?’ And half of me knew what it was after all the pestering. I thought we finally got through to him. I was like, ‘Nothing,’ because I knew what days they were, and he’s like, ‘Do you want to play? I was like, ‘Yeah, sure, I’ll check my busy schedule and make sure I can make it.’ ”
“I’m organized, he’s unorganized. He’s happy, I’m miserable,” Matt said. “Yeah, that’s probably a good way to put it really.”
Alex first made an impression on the golf scene as his big brother’s caddie at the 2013 U.S. Amateur at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, which Matt went on to win at age 16. This year marks a decade from that launching pad for Matt’s career. Last summer, Matt returned and won the U.S. Open there in storybook fashion, with Alex in his gallery.
One of the benefits of being a major winner is being sought after to tee it up in tournaments around the globe, and to entice Matt to play this week the Zurich Classic wisely extended a sponsor’s invite to Alex, who is cutting his teeth on the DP World Tour and the Challenge Tour. The Fitzpatricks become the second brother duo to pair up since the tournament switched to a team format six years ago, following in the footsteps of Brooks and Chase Koepka, who finished T-5 in 2017 and T-22 in 2019.
“You don’t know how many of those you’re going to get,” Matt said, referring to opportunities to tee it up alongside his brother. “For me, obviously I’m going to have to admit it now in front of everyone, but yeah, it was a no-brainer for me. It was always one I was looking to try and play.”
What’s the Team Fitzpatrick game plan for this week?
“Hopefully I kind of piggy-back off him this week, and yeah, we kind of ham-and-egg it and hopefully a good result at the end of the week,” Alex said.
“Ham-and-egg it,” said Matt, who lasted all of three months at Northwestern. “Wow, you turned very American in your four years at college.”
Matt said his brother knows how to make birdies in bunches, which should serve them well in both four-ball and alternate shot formats being used this week. “If I can kind of just steady the ship, I’ll just let him loose at trying to make some birdies,” Matt said. “I’m really proud of where his game is at and how much he’s improved. I do believe that he’s got a lot of talent, and hopefully soon he’ll start showing that.”
Next up on the PGA Tour schedule is the lone team event in New Orleans at the Zurich Classic at TPC Louisiana.
The defending champions, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, are teaming up once again — yes, they’re featured on this list — but they’re going to have to fight off a few loaded teams.
For example, world Nos. 7 and 13, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa, have their eyes set on a W. Both players graduated from Cal and were members of the winning 2022 U.S. Presidents Cup team at Quail Hollow.
Here are our five can’t-miss teams for the Zurich Classic in New Orleans (each player’s world ranking is featured in parenthesis).
Alex is ranked sixth in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
PALM HARBOR, Fla. – When Alex Fitzpatrick was 13 years old, he caddied for his brother, Matthew, at the U.S. Amateur. Young Alex still remembers the prize that he received for big bro winning the Havemeyer Trophy.
“My goal for the week was winning an iPhone off my dad, who promised me, if we won the tournament,” Alex recalled. “Obviously he never expected (us) to.”
In a that was then, this is now moment, big bro Matt is ranked 26th in the world and Alex, a 23-year-old senior at Wake Forest, is set to make his PGA Tour debut this week at the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course. He earned an exemption into the field for winning the Valspar Collegiate Invitational last year. It marks the first time the two brothers have competed in the same tournament.
“Unless you’re counting like the local medal that you play at your golf course,” Alex said.
Matt Fitzpatrick poses with his family, dad, Russell, brother Alex and mom Sue after winning the 2013 U. S. Amateur at The Country Club.
He earned the exemption by shooting 12-under 201 to win the individual title at The Floridian, but was unaware until an announcement at the dinner before the final round of the cherry topping that awaited the winner.
“My eyes kind of lit up a little bit, and I was a bit taken back,” he said. “It was kind of a nerve-wracking final 18 holes. It was always in the back of my mind, but I played nice golf and managed to get it done, and now I’m here and I couldn’t be happier.”
Alex is a two-time member of the Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team and is ranked sixth in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, reaching as high as fourth earlier in the year. He’s recorded five top-20 finishes in his last six events. In June, he likely will join the play-for-pay ranks.
“Ideally I would be in the top five for the PGA Tour University, fingers cross that had would happen,” Fitzpatrick said, noting that it would earn him several exemptions into Korn Ferry events during the summer. “If I didn’t finish top five, that’s sort of an open door at the moment. I’m still trying to figure that out. I think regardless I think I’m going to turn pro in June.”
Other brothers of recent vintage who have played in the pro ranks include Brooks and Chase Koepka, Nick and Curtis Thompson, whose sister Lexi has been the most successful of the Thompson brood, and British Open winner Francesco Molinari and brother Eduardo, who were Ryder Cup teammates. The LPGA is flush with some prominent sister duos: World No. 2 Nelly Korda and sister Jessica and major winner Ariya and Moriya Jutanagarn.
Brother-sister tandems included Australians Min Woo and Min Jee and Americans Danielle and Alex Kang. Asked late last year how good of a Ryder Cup pairing the Fitzpatrick brothers would make, Matthew said very good.
“I would love that,” he said. “I’m good friends with Edoardo Molinari. I’ve never really spoke to him properly about it, but I’m sure it’s one of his best moments in his career I would imagine, and I’m sure it would be one of mine if we were lucky enough to play together. To be on the same team would be very, very special.”
Matthew, 27, has won seven times on the DP World Tour, most recently at the Andalucia Masters, and twice represented Europe in the Ryder Cup. He’s set a high bar for his brother to clear.
“We’re four years apart it’s almost a little bit, the gap is almost a little too big to sort of play sort of games,” Alex said. “He was a lot better than me when he was like 16 and I was 12.”
“He’s sort of left me to it,” Alex added. “I feel like he’s got to a point now where he feels like I’m mature enough to sort of make my own decisions and manage my way around the course.”
Alex tried to familiarize himself with the course during Monday’s pro-am and the brothers played an 18-hole practice round together on Tuesday. This could be a good week to beat his big bro.
After sitting the morning session due to illness, Team USA’s Pierceson Coody rallied from a 2-down deficit to earn a big scalp in downing Alex Fitzpatrick of GB&I.
JUNO BEACH, Fla. – When Pierceson Coody woke up at 9 a.m. ET, nearly an hour after the first match of the morning foursomes got underway at the 48th Walker Cup, he enjoyed his first full meal in 38 hours.
Coody was one of several competitors who needed medical attention after contracting a stomach bug that required a trip to the hospital for observation and an IV of fluids.
“We couldn’t even lay in our beds,” he said. “It was a really weird feeling, a really down feeling… Ever since I started my college career, this is all I wanted to do.”
Coody, 21, of Plano, Texas, recuperated quickly enough to live his dream. He batted leadoff for Team USA in the afternoon singles session and rallied from an early 2-down deficit to defeat Great Britain & Ireland’s top gun Alex Fitzpatrick, 2 up.
“It was really easy to get going,” Coody said. “It went as smoothly as it could, as sick as we all were a couple days ago.”
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This wasn’t Coody’s first rodeo with a stomach bug while competing in a USGA championship. He suffered from food poisoning at the 2014 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, losing 14-15 pounds in two days, and also dealt with mononucleosis as a freshman at Texas.
“I’m not surprised in the least,” said Cole Hammer, Coody’s teammate at Texas. “He’s one of the most competitive guys I’ve ever been around.”
Coody started sluggishly, losing two of the first four holes to birdies by Fitzpatrick, a 22-year-old Englishman who plays for Wake Forest University and is the younger brother of PGA Tour pro Matt Fitzpatrick. Coody described the club as feeling “a little light,” and it reminded the Texas junior of playing for the NCAA National Championship as a freshman. That experience prepared him to handle the nerves.
As his grandpa, 1971 Masters champion Charlie Coody put it, “He’s a fighter. He got 2 down and he never gave up.”
Coody battled back with birdies at Nos. 7 and 9, the latter a nifty up-and-down for birdie at the par 5.
“To get to be even at the turn was huge,” Coody said.
He kept momentum by holing a tricky 8-foot par putt at 10 to halve the hole, lost the 11th to a Fitzpatrick birdie before hitting “three perfect shots” at 12 to square the match. It stayed that way until the par-3 17th when Fitzpatrick’s bunker shot slid off the green and he made double bogey. Coody closed it out with a beautiful approach from the Seminole driving range and a conceded birdie to win the battle of the good golf gene pool.
Coody, who won two of the oldest amateur golf competitions in the country – the 116th Trans-Mississippi Amateur and the 118th Western Amateur — had his grandfather in attendance, watching on television from the Victory Club.
“The things he’s accomplished in golf is everything that I want to be able to accomplish, so having him come to my tournaments is amazing,” Pierceson said. “It’s really special.”
When the former Masters champion was asked if he ever played in the Walker Cup, he deadpanned, “I wasn’t good enough.”
As for wearing white pants like his grandson and Team USA had today, the elder Coody said that he usually opted for a different shade because of the habit of his black Golf Pride grips to stain them. What advice has young Coody gathered from his major-winning grandpa?
“I’ve kind of been asked to stay away a little bit, so I obey the instructions,” Coody said. “He’s got a lot of natural ability, so I just let that natural ability take hold.”
What little advice Coody has gleaned from his grandpa is of the simplest nature.
“The only advice he gives me is 3 is better than 4, 4 is better than 5 and never give up,” Coody said.
There was plenty of fight from Coody on Saturday and if he follows his grandpa’s other sage advice – 3 is definitely better than 4 – he should be in good stead for 36 holes on Sunday.
A stomach bug is traveling through both teams at the Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club, but play will go on.
JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Cooper Dossey didn’t sleep much on Thursday night. As a stomach bug moves through the U.S. Walker Cup team – the Great Britain and Ireland team, too – several players at Seminole Golf Club for these week’s matches have found the concept of infection a bit unnerving.
Three weeks ago, Dossey, a fifth-year senior at Baylor, found out he’d be an alternate for the U.S. team, replacing Oklahoma’s Garret Reband. Dossey picked up the phone mid-April to hear U.S. team manager Robbie Zalzneck on the other end.
“Robbie started the phone call saying this is going to be awkward, so I knew what he was going to say after that,” he said. “I just told him, it’s not awkward at all. I told him, I’m thrilled to be here.”
And so far, his health remains intact too.
“I feel great so far, I don’t have any issues,” Dossey reported after spending several minutes moving around a practice chipping green at Seminole. “I don’t know what the heck it is but it’s knocking them down.”
Dossey’s status in the matches remains uncertain. Two alternates are present for each side, an unprecedented detail put in place this year as a COVID protocol. Dossey joins Mac Meissner, an SMU senior, on the U.S. side. GB&I brought Jake Bolton and Joe Pagdin after already dipping into the alternate pool in April when Jack Dyer replaced Sandy Scott, who took himself out of the matches because of a wrist injury.
“The other good thing,” John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director or championships, told media on Friday evening, “we made a decision about testing players every day so we knew early on this wasn’t COVID.”
Bodenhamer said foodborne illness has been ruled out and the cause of players’ symptoms is a virus.
It’s rampant. Bodenhamer said up to six members of the U.S. team have reported experiencing symptoms, with one player still struggling with the illness. Martin Slumbers, chief executive of the R&A, said seven of the 12 GB&I players have suffered from the illness, with one player still feeling ill. Both captains have experienced symptoms, too.
Robbie Zalzneck from the USGA talks to a group of US Team members during a practice round at the 2021 Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla. on Friday, May 7, 2021. (Chris Keane/USGA)
A player can only be subbed out of a session for illness. And if he feels well enough to return for a subsequent session, he’s eligible to do so.
The USGA and R&A delayed the announcement of pairings, usually revealed at the opening ceremony, to Saturday morning at 7 a.m. ET.
“The key thing to remember is the original 10 that will be the core,” Slumbers said.
A two-year body of work
Truly, selection to the Walker Cup team is a reflection of a player’s two-year body of work. Perhaps no one can put that into words better than Cole Hammer, a U.S. returner who was uncertain to make the team until winning the South Beach International Amateur in December and nearly winning the Jones Cup a month later.
“Two years ago was the best experience of my life on the golf course, and I wanted with everything in my body to get back here,” he said. “Obviously it’s a great feeling to be able to have done it, but I will say back in October, November of last year I was really stressing out. I was behind the 8-ball on the outside looking in, and I knew it, and I knew I just needed to go out and play a bunch of good golf.”
Hammer, who is coming off the individual title at the Big 12 Championship, recently made a coaching change to Bruce Davidson, with whom he’s worked as a kid. Davidson helped him get in a better position at the top so he could hit a draw again, a shot shape he likes.
He can trust what he’s doing, and that makes him formidable this week. Hammer won a lopsided Sunday singles match for the U.S. at the 2019 Walker Cup, and this week is one of three returners for the U.S. squad along with John Pak and Stewart Hagestad.
“I remember standing on the first tee last time and how cool of an experience it was,” Hammer said, “and I also remember how fast it was over.”
Alex Fitzpatrick was often in that lead-up spot for GB&I in 2019 – he played every match and brought home two of a possible four points for GB&I. He’s the only returning members for that side.
Fitzpatrick, whose older brother Matthew Fitzpatrick plays on the PGA and European Tours, feels fortunate to have family friends who are members at Seminole. He’s seen the place a handful of times, and even once had a putt for birdie for a back-nine 29 here.
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“Every time I come here I love it just as much,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s my sort of course where there’s no trees by the side of the tee that I’m worried about hitting. It’s just a lot of drivers.”
Golf aside, there remains the feeling that the weekend presents a bit of a gauntlet for players.
“I’m being very cautious with what I eat and where I go, and I’m sanitizing as much as I can,” Fitzpatrick said of his approach. “But it’s kind of luck of the draw really. I’m hoping that it doesn’t happen to me and that I can be healthy for tomorrow’s match.”
As for Dossey, who had a conversation with Zalzneck after playing Seminole’s sixth hole on Friday, the possibility of seeing action over the weekend is very real. He already called his mom back in Austin, Texas. Tears were shed and the Dosseys boarded a flight for South Florida.
Dossey said he has a strong relationship with Meissner, the other alternate, and told Meissner he shouldn’t think twice about playing if an alternate is needed, provided he feels well.
“These guys are some of my best friends,” he said. “I told them all when I got here that I hope I don’t play this weekend. They all deserve it, they got selected. But obviously things have changed. I’m ready to play, I’m hopeful that I don’t. If my name does get called, I’m excited and honored.”
Alex Fitzpatrick, a GB&I Walker Cup hopeful, leads the Jones Cup after a tournament-record 64 to open the event.
Expect Walker Cup selectors to be eyeing the Jones Cup, this week’s major amateur event at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, quite closely. That goes for the Great Britain & Ireland team just as much as for the U.S. team and on Friday, a GB&I player stole the show.
Alex Fitzpatrick, a Wake Forest junior from Sheffield, England, started on the back nine with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 at Ocean Forest and never let up. After five back-nine birdies, he added three more on the front for a tournament-record 8-under 64.
Interestingly, it didn’t give him much space at the top of the leaderboard. Five other men dove below 70 in the first round, including Georgia fifth-year senior Spencer Ralston, who is close on Fitzpatrick’s heels with a 7-under 65.
Fitzpatrick already has been named to the R&A’s Walker Cup practice squad. He was part of the 2019 GB&I Walker Cup team that competed at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England two years ago. Fitzpatrick provided some stability for his side that week, going out as the lead man in every session. He played to a 2-2-0 record.
Alex Fitzpatrick fires a TOURNAMENT RECORD 64 at the 2021 Jones Cup Invitational! Great playing! pic.twitter.com/mVmzp5gkVz
Tee times were moved up at Ocean Forest on Friday in anticipation of inclement weather moving through in the afternoon, and several players used the opportunity to score.
A year ago, Fitzpatrick, who is ranked No. 31 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, finished 31st at the Jones Cup. This week, he is coming off a fourth-play finish across the country at the Arizona Intercollegiate with his Wake Forest team.
Plenty of U.S. Walker Cup hopefuls are in the field, too. Put Ralston, winner of the 2019 Players Amateur and quarterfinalist at the 2019 U.S. Amateur, on that list.
A pair of twins, Maxwell Ford and David Ford of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, represent the junior contingent high up on the leaderboard. Maxwell Ford fired a 5-under 67 for solo third. His brother David, ranked No. 1 in the Golfweek Junior Rankings, sits in solo sixth at 3 under.
William Holcomb V, a fifth-year senior at Sam Houston State, has made no bones about his mission this week: He wants to play on this year’s Walker Cup team. Holcomb got hot early, making birdie on his first three holes to shoot to the top of the leaderboard. Another birdie followed at No. 6, but Holcomb had some missteps, too – bogeys at Nos. 7 and 11, and a double-bogey at No. 17.
Holcomb finished with a 2-under 70, good for a share of seventh with Ford Clegg, Davis Thompson and Cole Hammer.
Of note concerning the latter two in that group: Hammer is coming off a win in December at the South Beach International Amateur and Thompson is defending champion this week. Thompson is also No. 2 in the WAGR and, if he can hold that position through this week’s event, would secure an automatic selection to the U.S. Walker Cup team next week.
