Most weeks on the PGA Tour, winning scores are best measured in millions of dollars. Not this week, at the Zurich Classic. The biggest impact of this week’s event was always going to be of a different kind – it would mean full PGA Tour membership for someone who didn’t have it, as multiple non-PGA Tour winners found themselves in contention.
Smack in the middle of the pack it was one of the best players on the planetMatt Fitzpatrick, mates with his younger brotherAlex. Even if Alex is not one of the top 5 players in the world, he has played like one of the top 100 in the last few months. He’s no slouch, as evidenced by his recent victory on the DP World Tour, but he wasn’t a member of the Tour when he woke up Sunday morning, earning entry as a sponsor’s exception.
But as Sunday played out and the tension mounted on the back nine, Brothers Fitzpatrick seemed to be getting stronger. They returned to the back nine with a four-shot lead, but surrendered it within the hour. Two different duos reached the club at the age of 30 and tied for the lead. But Fitzpatrick’s would have the last chance to end it in regulation.
Matt ripped a drive 322 yards down the fairway, providing Alex with a hero moment. But the younger brother — after holding his brother, at least according to Matt, on the back nine — dropped his 9-wood into the greenside bunker next to the hole. Suddenly, a playoff seemed very possible.
Alex still had an overnight flight to Turkey for next week’s Turkish Airlines Open at DPWT. But he had done enough to put the ball in the hands of the No. 3 player in the world. From the center of the bunker, Matt Fitzpatrick hit it, driving the ball to the hole and rolling it back to within a foot.
“I got to the ball and the lie was unbelievable,” Matt said later. “I couldn’t have put it in a better frame. So I knew I was going to have to hit it, reel it all the way in.
“Did I plan it perfectly? Honestly, no, but you know, yeah, I played it to perfection. What more can I say?”
Alex shot his hands in the air when he saw the score, probably in part because his shot at becoming a member of the PGA Tour was as sure as could be. He let the other pair playing with them finish before spotting the ball and knocking in and falling into a crouch with his head in his hands. At that point, he wasn’t just the youngest member of the PGA Tour. He had reserved full Tour status for 2027 and 2028 as well.
This two-year exemption plus the tournament winner is the biggest prize most professional players are in constant pursuit of. This means job security and the ability to choose your schedule with clarity – you don’t need to see where you’re ranked to figure out whether you’ll get into a field. It is also one of the key things for debate in the boardroom to decide the future competitive structure of the tournament. If a highly meritocratic tournament should guarantee places for players YEAR in advance? Not everyone thinks so. But that will be decided in the coming months, and Alex Fitzpatrick achieved his unusual victory at just the right time. In the post-round press conference, he was asked if he would accept this one-way ticket to golf’s promised land.
“I really am,” Alex said in a daze. “I signed as fast as I could. I’m still shaking, and yeah, it was crazy.”
He no longer needs to hop on that flight to Turkey, because winning a tournament in 2026 also instantly propels you into the sport’s biggest arenas for the next couple of months. Alex will now be in the fields of this coming week’s Signature Event, the Cadillac Championship and three others that follow this season: the Truist Championship, the Memorial Tour and the Travelers Championship. He also earns a spot in this year’s PGA Championship two weeks from now at Aronimink in Philadelphia and next year’s Players Championship. So yes, the month of May will be a sign of things to come for pro golf fans: there’s a second Fitzpatrick on Tour. You will see a lot of him.
