"I Want to Be the Best"

Michael Weston speaks to US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick about his secrets to success and the relentless drive to improve as a golfer

- By Michael Weston

This is doable,” says Sky Sports’ Wayne Riley, as Matt Fitzpatrick steps into a fairway bunker on the final hole of the US Open with a one-shot lead, his ball in an awkward spot behind an island of grass within the trap. Be honest, you were grimacing, half hiding behind the sofa! His pursuer, Will Zalatoris, having found the fairway, is poised to fire one in close. He does so, but not before Fitzpatrick had produced “one of the best shots I’ve hit of all time”.

We should never have doubted him – the Sheffield man with nerves of steel. These were the headlines that were going to be written, not a tale of disappointment, as it was in May when Fitzpatrick suffered a miserable final day at the US PGA Championship, shooting a three-over 73 to miss out on a play-off by two shots.

At Brookline, scene of his US Amateur victory in 2013, Fitzpatrick was a different beast. Cool, calm and collected, with the exception of a rare show of emotion on the 13th, where he drained a near 50-footer to take the lead and show that his fist-pumping is up there with the best of them. It was an extraordinary moment, bettered only by that “squeezy fade” from the bunker on 18. And to think this was the one area of the game he had been struggling with.

“The feeling is out of this world,” said Fitzpatrick afterwards, grinning from ear to ear. “It is so cliche, but it’s stuff you dream of as a kid. I can retire a happy man tomorrow.” This last part may not be strictly true. Fitzpatrick has always been open about his ambitions, and even before breaking his Major duck at the US Open, he had talked about his quest to win multiple Major titles.