Matt Fitzpatrick is one of the best players in the game right now.
The 31-year-old Englishman is the only PGA Tour player with three wins so far this season and is fresh off a 22nd-place finish at the US Open in Shinnecock.
Fitzpatrick is famously data-driven in his approach to every golf course and is known to take copious notes on every shot he hits. This insight is aided by its official performance data partner disputewho works closely with Fitzpatrick and his team to help turn his hands-on observations and tournament round statistics into actionable insights for smarter preparation through a custom-built analytics platform, mobile app and AI-powered tools.
In this week’s episode of Subpar, hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz asked Fitzpatrick if he would be willing to share one of his observations in writing after something bad happened on the course.
“None of it was written,” Fitzpatrick said with a laugh. “They said more out loud.”
Fitzpatrick has played in 12 US Opens since 2014 and won the 2022 edition of the championship at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass. Stoltz decided to put Fitzpatrick on the spot: Which US Open venue is his favorite, excluding the course where he won?
Despite the final blow to a tough weekend on Long Island with rounds of 74-73 on Saturday and Sunday, Fitzpatrick admitted Shinnecock would still be his choice.
“I really like Shinnecock, to be honest,” he said. “I’ve played two US Opens there. I think that’s where I’ve played the most. I really liked the setup in 2018. I thought it was really tough, but it was really fair.
“I think people forget that the one thing that I feel that place offers you, for the most part, except maybe a few greens, is that if you’re out of position, you can get it to a position where you still have a chance for a putt,” he continued. “And I think that’s a big thing. Yeah, up and down is tough, but you can still be healthy on the green and have a chip, and I felt, that year, it played well from that standpoint. I thought it was the same this year, obviously different conditions with how soft the greens were the first two days, but honestly, Shinnecock is a great course.”
For more from Fitzpatrick, including a course he’d like to host a US Open return to, watch the full episode of Subpar below.
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