ITALIAN OPEN

September 14, 2022

Matt Fitzpatrick

Marco Simone Golf & Country Club

Press Conference

STEVE TODD: Welcome back everybody. We are very pleased to be joined by the reigning U.S. Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick. I know you've been out on the golf course, your second time here at Marco Simone. Give us your thoughts on what you've seen on the golf course and the thoughts on you and some of The Ryder Cup boys being here this week, and additional motivation being here with The Ryder Cup some 12 months out.

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, definitely, I think the golf course is decent. I think there are some good match-play holes coming into the end there. 16 is obviously going to be an interesting one depending on situations and make or break the match I guess. On the whole the golf course is in good shape. You can see the changes that Luke and Edoardo and Co. are trying to make it, you know, help Team Europe, which is good.

Looking forward to the week and like you said, motivation to make the team and to be here in a year's time and win The Ryder Cup.

STEVE TODD: With Alex being in the field, first time you've been in the same field together, one of three sets of brothers this week. Give us your thoughts on that and what the week means for your family.

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, very grateful for the Italian Federation for giving him an invite this week. We really appreciate that as a family. I know Alex does; I do. And to play the same tournament as him is really cool. I'm really interested to see how he gets on, being new to playing professional golf and he's still learning a lot now. It's an exciting time for him and hopefully he can sort of build on it and have a good week.

Q. Just to know about the improvements that you're working on in your game in your swing speed looks really improved. What are you aiming in your golf swing?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I've done a lot this year and since the end of 2020. I use a training program called the Stack, which is like a golf club with weights on. You follow an app on your phone and it tells what you weights to putt o the club, how many swings, and you do that over a period of time and that's definitely helped me get a lot faster. So that's been a big positive.

Q. What's your position about LIV players in The Ryder Cup?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I said it last week, and I just want to win The Ryder Cup, so in my opinion, I want to be part of the team myself but I want the 11 best guys we can get. I'm not really too bothered about where they are going to come from. I just want to make sure that we win and I think that's what's most important. I know other guys might not necessarily agree with that but I know the winning feeling is worth more than any sort of arguments you might have with other players.

Q. Two questions for you. Question No. 1, what percentage of your success comes from statistics? And how do you see the situation between the elevated events of the PGA TOUR and those players who want to play more tournaments in the DP World Tour?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, I put a lot of my improvements down to statistics. I'm always trying to see where I can improve all aspects of my game. Just making sure -- that's why I take so much detail on the golf course, so I know where my weak areas are and where my strengths are and I know how to kind of improve those with my team.

So yeah, statistics to me are incredibly important.

The second question about the elevated events on the DP World Tour, that's going to be an interesting one. I don't know what Europe's schedule is next year so something I've got to take into account. Obviously I have an idea of the PGA TOUR but it's just something I'm going to have to figure out at the end of the year and figure out what's going to go on in Europe and how to balance our time, really.

Q. You are one of the first players to use the statistics in golf. What are the biggest benefits you find?

MATT FITZPATRICK: To me, there's so many. The list is very, very long to be honest. One, working with Edoardo Molinari, who is obviously a very accomplished tour player who has the experience as a player, so he knows about the game and he know what is to look for. He understands things, is one.

Two, just what Edoardo was offering in terms of what we can track is just so much better than what I was using before, as well as the addition for me to say, oh, I'd really like to look at this and he would be able to just build that into a spreadsheet and we could track that for a period of time or we could track that forever.

He's open to making changes. He's always trying to improve his product and give better advice. He's worked so hard at it. Yeah, for me, I love -- I'm always interested in numbers, whether it's mine or whether it's other people's. I kind of like to know what's going on and what's good and why someone is playing well and why they are not playing well. I just find that interesting, as well and I know Edoardo is the same. He's someone that I can trust and get on well with, and yeah, there isn't any better in my opinion.

Q. First of all, following up, have you talked with any of your former teammates, the other guys that have left and gone from The European Tour to LIV about playing? Was there any discussion you had with them?

MATT FITZPATRICK: There's only one that I had a conversation with last week. I told him I'd happily have him on the team. I'd have no issues. As I said, I want to win, and if that means having whoever on the team, that's all that matters to me.

I haven't spoken to the others but I spoke to one and that's kind of -- you know, I told him my thoughts and feelings about the matter.

Q. Coming back to being here, let's talk about the course. What do you see are the keys to being able to win on this course and how is it best for Europe to do that?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, I feel like this week looking at it is you've got to drive the ball well I feel like this week. You give yourself a chance from the fairways. As soon as you're in the rough, you get all sorts of lies, flyers. I think looking at it, if you drive the ball well, give yourself plenty of chances on the greens, you're in with a good shot.

Q. Any additional thoughts? Where are the key holes from your point of view, besides 16 which everybody talks about?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, I think you look at 9, 10, 11, 12, you've got four holes there that you've got a chance to make, you know, birdies. 10, maybe not so much. But certainly make three in four holes, and that's kind of a big swing, particularly Sunday, back nine, all of a sudden you make three birdies out of those four, and you could be right back in it. You could pull away. I think that's an interesting stretch of holes.

STEVE TODD: Thank you, and Matt, best of luck this week.