NBC Broadcaster Called Slow Player Fitzpatrick: ‘Very Frustrating’

Matthew Fitzpatrick has never been a fan of slow play — nor the way the PGA Tour has handled the problem.

So it was fitting that his latest Tour win came with an extra hurdle: the pace of his playing partner.

“It was really frustrating. It was slow today. I felt like there was a lot of stop-start,” Fitzpatrick said after his victory in Valspar Championship.

He chose his words carefully and never called out his playing partner Adrien Dumont de Chassart by name, but his words echoed sentiments he has shared over his years on tour. It’s a complicated tension to handle — individuals who play for a living will always get the time they think they need, while stroke sentences can be difficult to serve — Fitzpatrick has repeatedly called out the policing of the issue, using phrases like “truly appalling,” “a disgrace,” “pathetic” and more.

Three years ago, after a big win at Harbor Town, Fitzpatrick took aim in an interview with Sky Sports. But he also admitted that he was taking a vain attitude.

“The problem is, though, this conversation has gone on for years and years and years and nobody has ever done anything,” he said at the time. “So I think it’s almost a waste of time to talk about it every time. I have my opinions — they’re probably strong opinions, but the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour, nobody’s going to do anything about it.”

Come back on Sunday, then. While Fitzpatrick’s day was smooth — he shot a three-under 68 en route to his first PGA Tour win in nearly three years — Dumont de Chassart was less so. The 26-year-old Belgian’s first shot flew out of bounds en route to triple-bogey 8 and he made a second 8 on the par-5 11th; His handling of the latter took so long that Fitzpatrick, who had been playing out of order to try to keep their set on pace, took the unusual step of asking an official for help.

Seasoned NBC reporter John Wood said Fitzpatrick was “disturbed” by Chassart’s pace, which he described as “glacial, to be polite.”

Rules official Orlando Pope confirmed on air that Fitzpatrick had spoken with an official and that the Tour had unofficially started timing him; which eventually led to an official warning.

“Yeah, just, you know, just not ready,” Fitzpatrick said, referring to his partner, if not by name. He was making a distinction between making a high score—which does happen and can inevitably slow down the game—and playing slow while doing so.

“When you’re not ready to play a golf shot, it gets frustrating after a while. Especially when you’re playing well by yourself or you’re in competition or whatever. It definitely throws you out of your rhythm. Because you hit it, you walk towards it, you think about it, you hit it again and you go.

“That hole in particular, then you’re around a stretch there that can get a little weird with shots and stuff, so you’ve got to be on it,” Fitzpatrick continued. “It definitely threw me off the pace I felt like for the next two, three holes. I was chasing my tail because I’m trying to speed up and try to hold us or get back into position, and at the same time you’re obviously trying to win a golf tournament.”

Fitzpatrick eventually won that golf tournament.

Chassart dropped to T26 after a 74. However, he avoided any slow-play penalties and improved from no. 97 to 91 in the rankings during the FedEx Cup season.

It was almost nine years since the last time the Tournament last awarded a penalty kick. The tournament was announced some possible fixes beginning of last season. It’s safe to say Fitzpatrick thinks they remain a work in progress.

But given the chance, we doubt he’d change a thing about Sunday’s winning round.

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