Matt Fitzpatrick does things a little differently, and it’s helped him become one of the best players in golf.
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BROOKLINE, Mass.; – There’s a common hazard in golf, one that affects golfers of all stripes.
The man of looking stupid.
Or put another way, the fear of being different.
How Matthew Fitzpatrick transformed himself into one of the game’s long bombers
Ryan Barath
Golf is a homogeneous game, in many ways. One grounded in a sense of how things have been done, and therefore should be done. Golfers know they could and should probably do. But golf is hard enough as it is. Is doing something that might help really worth the tradeoff of looking stupid, or different? Don’t they just play things safe, and do the conventional way?
“I get that, but it depends if you want to be second all your life,” Matthew Fitzpatrick said after his second-round 70. “I’d rather not worry about looking stupid. If it helps your game and it helps you improve, then there’s no reason not to do it in. ”
Fitzpatrick, who won the US Amateur Championship here in 2013, comes into the weekend at The Country Club two-under and three back from the 36-hole lead. Never the tallest or strongest of the lot, he hasn’t enjoyed the luxury of worrying about how things look. It takes one of the reasons he has recently decided to start wearing braces.
And as he vies for his second trophy at The Country Club, he’ll do so with clever quirks littered throughout his game. Let’s beak a few of them down.
1. Personal stat-tracking
Golf Digest’s Dan Rapaport has done a great work out of Fitzpatrick’s game, which you can read more about here. In a nutshell, Fitzpatrick wants a more in-depth level than golf’s current advanced metrics Strokes Gained and Proximity to the Hole, a tool.
The issue Fitzpatrick recognizes, quite rightly, is that those metrics will track where the ball ends up, but not where he actually did his ball in the first place. So, he tracks that himself: Where he was aiming and how offline his ball ended. He plugs it all into a master spreadsheet and at the end of it, has a clearer picture of what he needs to work on.
2. Cross-handed chipping
It’s a common sight to see players employing a grip on the greens. But around the greens? Well, there’s only one player who does that: Matt Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick says he tends to “drive the handle” during his swing. It’s less of a problem on full shots, but around the greens, that moves delofts the club and creates consistency issues. Specifically, it can cause him to catch the ball fat. So, in 2020, it would be common to introduce a cross-handed drill.
“If [swung incorrectly] with this grip I would shank it, ”he says. “It forces me to throw the clubhead, and I just feel like it’s much more consistent in strike, flight and spin.”
3. Pin-in putting
Remember when the USGA changed the rules to allow players to keep the pin in while they put a penalty? Bryson was the most vocal player to say he’d do it, though that’s since faded away. Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has been cruising steadily inside the top 25 on tour in SG: Putting, keeping the pin along the way.
The reason he does it is because there is some evidence to suggest it helps. When the ball collides with the flagstick, the flagstick absorbs some of that shock, which takes speed off the ball, and thus improves its chances of dropping into the hole.
“He tried it during the 2019 Open Championship and had a great putting day, so he stuck with it,” his putting coach Phil Kenyon says. “It’s psychological. Almost superstition, but it makes him feel comfortable, and that’s the most important thing. ”
4. Prayer grip
Fitzpatrick’s putting has long been the strength of his game. It’s interesting – and telling – that it doubles as one of its most unconventional assets.
The vast majority of players use a conventional, reverse overlap grip with their putter, which involves golfers placing their right hand under their left hand, and tapping them together with the index finger of their left hand.
Fitzpatrick uses a traditional crosshanded grip, and a prayer putting grip. He uses multiple fingers to link his hands, which allows his club and putter to move as a singular unit. It also brings his shoulders more level with each other, which creates a more pendulum-style stroke.
5. Bomb and (not) gouge
Fitzpatrick’s game may have been his newfound power, which has been truly impressive. Dustin Johnson, with his ball speed regularly surpassing 175 mph.
The journey there started in 2020, when added golf golf biomechanics expert Dr. Sasho Mackenzie to his team. Alongside his longtime coach Mike Walker, Fitzpatrick started using Sasho’s speed-boosting training aid, The Stack, and in short order his average on-course swing speed jump from 112 mph to 119 mph.
“A big reason for success is that most players aren’t willing to stick with a plan week after week, for years. Matt did, ”Mackenzie says. “A seven mile per hour change, but you can still get a month with no measurable progress because your first goal is to avoid injury and not sabotage an already high level of performance. That makes buy-in tough, but Matt has been a treat to work with. ”
It’s that clever, quirky, disciplined approach to golf that helped turn Fitzpatrick into a killer. And he could end the week with a trophy to show for it.
Matt Fitzpatrick hit this drive almost 20 yards past Dustin Johnson.
Since 2020, his cruising swing speed has jumped from 112 to ~ 119 mph. @SashoMacKenzie explains why:
“Most players aren’t willing to stick with a plan week after week, for years. Matt did. ” pic.twitter.com/nWu5R5G1v2
– LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) June 18, 2022
