PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 21, 2022

Matt Fitzpatrick

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: We are joined by Matt Fitzpatrick, carded a 3-under par 67 today, 6-under par for the championship and tied for second place.

Looking at your card, a bogey, bogey start but you really flipped the script, found your groove, and now you're in second place. That's some pretty good living and puts you in a pretty good position going into the final round of a major championship.

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, looking forward to tomorrow with the start that I had, it's easy it could get away from me. I was just really proud of the way that I battled back and didn't really let it faze me, so obviously a very good round in the end and like I say, looking to ready to tomorrow.

Q. Your World Ranking has oscillated between 18 and 35 for the past five years, but you're talking about how you feel like you're a much more complete player now. What gives you that belief?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Just everything I did in the off-season, really. And also the results to start the season. My driving was already a good strength last year and putting has always been a strength of mine. We made changes with my short game and my irons in the winter. So far, I feel like they have paid off.

I think the big thing for me is my results showed that, but I feel it in my game as well. I feel like I can hit the shots way want to see and so far, it's been a good year.

Q. Smile, come on. Okay. So where you are now, most likely in the last group, how do you take that, because it's been kind of documented how your major successes have not been, and how do you take that and how do you take that differently from the first three days?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I'm just looking forward to it. I've spoke about it with my coaches at length about my major record. You know, I've always just said to them, I just want to give myself a chance because I backed myself at the end of the day. I feel like whenever I've had a chance in Europe, I've played very well. Even over here when I've had chances to win, if you really look, I've not had that many chances to win. But when I have, I've played well. I've not lost it.

So yeah, I'm more just looking forward to it more than anything. It's a chance to win and just want to -- I'll happily go tee off now if we can.

Q. I think you said yesterday you talked to your dad and he asked but the course, and you weren't a fan of it. What is it about the course that you didn't like and when did you realize, oh, this might be for me?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I think Thursday with the weather and the heat, don't get me wrong, it was hot Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday here, but for whatever reason I felt like it dried out more, greens became a bit firmer, fairways became much firmer, ball was going a long way. And I guess in practice, I spoke to Danny Willett about it before, funnily enough, he always feels like he's almost a club or club and a half shorter in practice come Thursday. So I think there's a lot of that as well. I've hit a few of the holes, I want to say No. 7 in practice, we were hitting like 5-irons in, and I think I hit gap wedge and pitching wedge the first two days.

So you know, that's quite the difference, and all of a sudden you think, oh, maybe this course does kind of suit me in a way. So like I say when I first saw it, it felt really long and felt like a bit of a slog, but obviously the weather kind of helped that and I felt like even today it's still pretty firm on the fairways.

Q. How much has your work with Sasho Mackenzie and in general getting stronger and adding distance, has that transformed your game?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, a bit of both. My trainer, Matt Roberts, we had a good off-season and good end to last year in the gym so we did really well there and I was really pleased with that progress that we made. Also Sasho, I use his product called the Stack, which is like speed training, basically, and that's been a big difference. That's made a massive difference in my driving, just in terms of swing speed, ball speed and just general control of the club. That was always his advice that it's not going to change like my real long ones. It's going to move my baseline up, so from whatever it was to five miles an hour faster or whatever the number is.

So yeah, he's definitely been really important in helping me improve.

Q. Specific about the miles per hour ball speed?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I don't know, like I said the other day I've not looked at the radar stuff this week. But he sent me a bunch of screenshots before where I've been at tournaments and getting 180 ball speed. So I would say regularly out on course, I'm taking a guess here like 177 and then maybe sort of before that, I was delighted with 170, so yeah.

Q. Weight also?

MATT FITZPATRICK: No. No, no.

Q. What will you do between now and your tee time tomorrow? And how if at all will that differ from if you were, say, tied 40th?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Nothing, really. Nothing different. Just keep the routine the same. I'm sharing a house with Thomas Pieters this week which has been fun. First time we've done that, so we've had a bit of a laugh this week. Yeah, I'll probably just go and clip a few now with my coach and just sort of chill.

Q. What does chilling look like?

MATT FITZPATRICK: He'll probably put the basketball on, so I'll probably just sit and pretend to watch and be on my phone and do nothing.

Q. What specifically is it about the left-hand-low, cross-handed chipping that helps? How does it influence your technique and what do you like about it?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I had a tendency to sort of drive the handle and then the ball would fall off the face, whereas with this, if I did that, I would just shank it. It courses me to slow the head in, and I just I feel like it's just much more consistent in strike, flight and spin.