The rain seemed to never go away this past weekend in Scotland, which shortened the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship to a 54-hole event.
Matt Fitzpatrick cashes in at St. Andrews in shortened Dunhill Links Championship
Matt Fitzpatrick, now the 7th-ranked player in the world, won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews.
Jack Milko has been playing golf since he was five years old. He has yet to record a hole-in-one, but he did secure an M.A. in Sports Journalism from St. Bonaventure University.
But when the showers finally subsided at St. Andrews, Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick emerged victorious.
It marks his second victory of the 2023 calendar year, as he defeated Jordan Spieth in a playoff at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina in April.
“It’s amazing. Winning is difficult,” Matt Fitzpatrick said afterward.
“And for me, like, I had a chance a few weeks ago in Switzerland, and that one hurt a lot. I felt like I had been playing better than in the summer.”
At the Omega European Masters in early September, Fitzpatrick held the 54-hole lead at 15-under. He led by two going into the final day.
And then, on that Sunday, the Englishman played somewhat conservatively, carding a 1-under 69 to lose by three to Ludvig Åberg.
The young Swede raced past the field in Switzerland with a 6-under 64.
Yet, this week, after holding the lead through 36 holes, Fitzpatrick kept his foot on the gas during the final round at St. Andrews.
The Englishman made eight birdies, to go along with two bogies, to total a 6-under 66 on Monday at the Old Course. He totaled 19-under through 54 holes.
He even birdied the famous par-4 18th to cap off the tournament—an event in which he played with his mother by his side.
“Obviously, a nice way to finish there,” Matt Fitzpatrick said. “Played well on those last few holes coming in. Mum got us off a great on the back nine, and she played great all day again.
The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship resembles the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Each professional golfer is paired up with an amateur player, so two competitions occur simultaneously throughout the week: the individual, professional stroke play event and the pro-am team event.
Both tournaments take place at three courses, with St. Andrews, Carnoustie Golf Links, and Kingsbarns Golf Links hosting this event in Scotland.
So for the second straight year, Fitzpatrick teamed up with his mother, Susan, as the mother-son duo won the team competition.
“It’s been such a great week,” Susan Fitzpatrick said. “It’s amazing they managed to get us out today, but it’s been such a great day today. I enjoyed the course and played at a great pace. It’s been lovely, so it’s been another great week.”
The Fitzpatrick’s totaled 35-under for the team competition, winning by five.
The 2022 U.S. Open champion won individually by three strokes, as fellow Englishmen Matthew Southgate and Marcus Armitage finished at 16-under par. So, too, did New Zealander Ryan Fox, who recently won the BMW PGA Championship two weeks before the Ryder Cup.
“Even with all my wins, aside from a major, you forget about them in the future, and you’ll always remember the one you won with your mum, so it doesn’t get better than that,” Matt Fitzpatrick said.
“From when I won the U.S. Open last year, I knew that the criteria was you had to win a major or be Top 15 in the world to be able to pick your partner here. That was one of the first things we spoke about. If we can play Dunhill together, and that’s what we did last year; last year was clearly a warmup for this year. We did very well this year.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
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