Alex Fitzpatrick readily admits that it\u2019s not easy being a professional golfer while your older brother has become one of the best players in the world. But then there are week\u2019s like this when he\u2019d wouldn\u2019t want to be anywhere else other than at his brother\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
The Fitzpatricks had played together three previous times in the two-man team competition that is the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. They\u2019d done OK, twice finishing in the top 20. But neither quite had their game clicking at the same time the way they do this year. Matt, 31, has won twice in his last three PGA Tour starts, and Alex, 27, scored an enormous breakthrough when he notched his first DP World Tour victory in late March in the Hero India Open.<\/p>\n
That strong form, along with the comfort of playing together all of their lives, has produced so far a very special week in New Orleans. Playing fourball in Saturday\u2019s third round, the Fitzpatricks scorched TPC Louisiana with a best-ball card of 15-under-par 57.<\/p>\n
Matt drained six birdies and an eagle, and Alex poured in seven birdies as the English pair forged a three-shot lead. They stand at 15 under, with two groups of Americans\u2014Alex Smalley\/Hayden Springer (62) and Davis Thompson\/Austin Ekroat (61)\u2014as their closest pursuers.<\/p>\n
The Fitzpatricks already achieved one milestone this year when they became the first brothers to win in back-to-back weeks on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour. Now they can become the first siblings to capture the Zurich in the nine years it\u2019s been a team format.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmazing day. Probably not kind of sunk in how well we played today, if I’m honest,\u201d Matt said. \u201cYeah, it was just hole after hole. The score, I only just realized we finished with five in a row. You know, you kind of are thinking about the next shot, so you’re not really thinking about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt made an eagle and three birdies to contribute most to their 29 on the front, and then Alex took over on the back with five birdies (to Matt\u2019s four)\u2014including three straight to close the round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t really do much the first nine holes,\u201d Alex said. \u201cI just kind of just let him do his thing. Yeah, it was pretty cool to watch. You know, playing alongside my brother, who happens also to be one of the best players in the world is pretty fun. When he’s playing well, it’s pretty cool to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Matt who has thus far had the more distinguished career. He has nine European tour regular wins and three on the PGA Tour, and there\u2019s the biggest prize\u2014his victory in the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club. Matt\u2019s latest run has vaulted him to a career-high No. 3 in the World Ranking.<\/p>\n
Alex, who stands at No 141 in the world, played at Wake Forest and has climbed the pro ladder in Europe, capturing his first pro title on the Challenge Tour. He then reached the DP World Tour and overcame a six-shot deficit at one point in the final round to win in India.<\/p>\n
“I’ll try and explain without crying, it’s been a lot of hard work for a long time,” Alex said the day of his victory.<\/p>\n
He also admitted that it hasn\u2019t always been easy to follow in Matt\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n
“It can be hard sometimes when you’re constantly chasing someone’s accolades, but luckily it’s my brother,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s extremely nice to join him in the winners’ ranks and hopefully I can continue to push on.<\/p>\n
“I idolize him, so just trying to be like him in every way so yeah, hopefully we can keep doing well.”<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the teams will play alternate shot, and the Fitzpatricks would seemingly have an advantage in that discipline, too. Their 65 on Friday was two shots better than any other team.<\/p>\n
Matt gushed on Saturday about his brother\u2019s play this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, he was brilliant today. He was faultless truly,\u201d he said. \u201cHe played fantastic, and he played fantastic yesterday as well. He played brilliant golf both last two days. His game has really turned a corner these last few months, and I believe in him to continue that trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s doing all the right things, and obviously it was nice for him to have such a big impact there on the back nine to continue what the front nine brought.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Fitzpatrick readily admits that it\u2019s not easy being a professional golfer while your older brother has become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26659,28383,1781,51,29364,31364],"class_list":{"0":"post-56059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zurich","8":"tag-alex-fitzpatrick","9":"tag-matt-fitzpatrick","10":"tag-story","11":"tag-zurich","12":"tag-zurich-classic-of-new-orleans","13":"tag-zurich-saturday"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116472588873006883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56059","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=56059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}