What would winning this year\u2019s Zurich Classic of New Orleans mean?<\/p>\n
It depends on the team. In some cases, it depends on the player within the team.<\/p>\n
Take world No. 3 Matt Fitzpatrick, for example. He became a major champion by winning the 2022 U.S. Open. Last week, he beat world numero uno Scottie Scheffler in a playoff to win the RBC Heritage, one of the elevated purse signature events on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n
A win for him this week would be nice. Any PGA Tour victory is a rare gem. But victory probably would be more meaningful to Matt for what it would mean for his brother Alex.<\/p>\n
Alex Fitzpatrick is no top-10 world player like his older sibling, but he\u2019s no slouch, either. He arrived in New Orleans ranked 141st in the world, and last month he earned his first victory on the DP World Tour.<\/p>\n
It came at the Hero Indian Open on the Gary Player-designed course at a place called DLF Golf & Country Club just outside the capital New Delhi. Two-time Masters and former Zurich champ Rory McIlroy once called DLF \u201cthe most infamous golf course in the world\u201d for its difficulty. Coming as it did the week after Matt won the Valspar Championship in the Tampa Bay area, it made them the first siblings to win on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour in back-to-back weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll try and explain how this feels without crying,\u201d the 27-year-old said that week. \u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of hard work for a long time. It can be hard sometimes when you\u2019re constantly chasing someone\u2019s accolades, but luckily, it\u2019s my brother.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s extremely nice to join him in the winners\u2019 ranks, and hopefully I can continue to push on. I idolize him. I\u2019m just trying to be like him in every way. So yeah, hopefully we can keep doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex plays most of his golf on the DP World Tour, which in baseball terms is Triple-A ball to the PGA Tour\u2019s major leagues. Impressive to play and win on, certainly, but not the highest level. It\u2019s like the EFL Championship league in English football, where the Fitzpatricks\u2019 beloved Sheffield United is languishing mid table, compared to the Premier League.<\/p>\n
A win this week would change all of that. A win this week, aside from nearly $1.4 million for each player, would give Alex Fitzpatrick (here on a sponsor\u2019s exemption) an exemption to play the entire PGA Tour through the 2028 season.<\/p>\n
No chasing a golf ball to far-flung places such as India. No worries of English football-like relegation for the rest of this season. And the next. And the next.<\/p>\n
A win for Alex Fitzpatrick would change his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would obviously mean a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cThe thing is you can\u2019t force it. I think that would be something I might be thinking about if we\u2019re coming down the stretch on Sunday and we\u2019re in contention.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it would be nice to win. But also, it\u2019s just nice to be here with (Matt) and have the opportunity to play and compete and see how we get on. Hopefully, we don\u2019t play like (Sheffield United).\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the first two rounds of the Zurich, the brothers Fitzpatrick are definitely on much finer form than Sheffield United.<\/p>\n
They were disappointed by their finish Thursday in the easier best-ball format, both hitting their second shots in the water on the par-5 18th hole leading to bogeys and a solid but could-have-been-better 8-under 64. But they bounced back impressively Friday with a superb 7-under 65 in the tougher alternate-shot format, the best round of the day, highlighted by Matt\u2019s 60-foot chip in for eagle on 18. That put the Fitzpatricks in a three-way tie for second, just one back of first-round leaders Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like we played really solid, holed the putts when we needed to and came up with a nice score,\u201d Alex said.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the tournament reverts back to the more score-friendly best-ball format before finishing Sunday with alternate shot. The brothers were planning to have dinner at Mr. B\u2019s Bistro in the French Quarter for the third time this week.<\/p>\n
Alex Fitzpatrick said he\u2019s enjoyed the food just about everywhere he\u2019s played golf in the world, which is just about everywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really loved playing in South Korea last year for the first time,\u201d he said. \u201cThe food was absolutely amazing. Sounds like my head always follows the food, but there\u2019s just little things everywhere that are amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Win Sunday, and the Fitzpatricks can make Mr. B\u2019s and a few other famous New Orleans restaurants their home base next season and the one after that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What would winning this year\u2019s Zurich Classic of New Orleans mean? It depends on the team. In some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21980,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-55330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zurich","8":"tag-hardwall","9":"tag-zurich"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116462656144797096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}