It has been a phenomenal start to life on the PGA Tour for Alex Fitzpatrick when you consider that he did not even have a card two months ago.
Fitzpatrick has taken his opportunity with both hands after he won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside his brother Matt Fitzpatrick back in April.
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The win not only handed him a PGA Tour card, but it also gave the youngster the chance to play in the signature events.
Alex Fitzpatrick reflects on his start to life on the PGA Tour
Remarkably, he has already registered four top 10 finishes in five starts, including a sixth place finish at the Memorial Tournament this past week.
In fact, the 27-year-old has a greater number of top 10 finishes in the signature events this season than his older brother, who won the RBC Heritage the week after The Masters.
Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
So perhaps it is no surprise that Fitzpatrick seems to be delighted with how he has adapted to life on the PGA Tour after making the jump from the DP World Tour.
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“I would like to say it’s gone pretty well. I’m incredibly grateful because I have great people, a great team around me, lots of people that I trust and lots of great advice, especially my brother and the people around him. I feel like coming here for four years for college has really helped me as well and being familiar with the guys out here,” he said.
“So I don’t really feel like it’s been hard to kind of fit in. Again, after we played the Zurich, everyone was so welcoming in Miami that it felt right at home. So it’s been really nice for me.”
Fitzpatrick pleased to prove a point after his Zurich Classic victory
There was some debate over Fitzpatrick’s situation after the win at TPC Louisiana. While it was hard to have any complaints with the decision to hand him a PGA Tour card, it did seem odd that he was given a ticket to the signature events.
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Obviously, Fitzpatrick more than played his part in the win. However, it was a team event, so there is a small asterisk against it.
But Fitzpatrick has silenced anyone who felt that he was not deserving of a chance in the signature events. He has certainly not looked out of place over the last couple of months.
And he spoke about how pleasing it has been to prove that point.
“Yeah, it’s really rewarding. 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. 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. That was kind of something that I had wanted since I was young, to win on that tour, and I felt like that made it a little easier going into the Zurich not having as much pressure and just trying to enjoy it,” he said.
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“But it’s definitely been really rewarding playing some good golf following that and, yeah, hopefully, that stays like that.”
Given how good Fitzpatrick has been from tee to green over the last few weeks, it has to be said that he is a contender to be in the mix at the US Open later this month.
It really would be the icing on the cake for the Englishman if he managed at Shinnecock to lift the trophy that he watched his brother get his hands on four years ago at Brookline.
It would be naive to write him off.
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