Matt Fitzpatrick

Defending champion Jon Rahm looked set to finish an eventful day on top of the leaderboard when he birdied the 14th, 15th and 17th to take the outright lead, ...

“It’s obviously a special place for me and to go one step further and win a US Open round here would be even more special. The job is not even close to being done.” Start your Independent Premium subscription today. “That’s bull****, man.” Speaking after a round of 72 left him three over par, Thomas said: “I called an official to get a ruling on it, and in the spirit of the game I wasn’t going to hit the drain. A victory on Sunday would see Fitzpatrick join Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win the US Amateur and US Open on the same course, Nicklaus doing so at Pebble Beach in 1961 and 1972.

Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick emerged atop the leaderboard at the U.S. Open on Saturday during a brutal round in which eight players had at least a ...

A former PGA champion, he called it "probably the highlight of my whole entire life." Denny McCarthy made the cut on the number at 3-over par. To play that back nine at even par today was a really good effort, I thought. This Saturday at Brookline was so wild that Rahm was the last of eight players who had at least a share of the lead at some point. If anything, he said it was getting dark and he didn't notice his ball sitting down in the sand. That's all I was trying to do. He made one birdie in his round of 73. "I have 18 holes, and I'm only one shot back," he said. It's not like Rahm had full rights to the lead. Rahm's first shot from a fairway bunker hit the lip and nearly rolled into his footprint. He was equally steady and ran off three birdies over his last five holes for a 68. That's what knocked defending U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm out of the lead on the final hole.

You couldn't draw up a better final-round for a major than the one that's in store Sunday for the climax of the 122nd U.S. Open at The Country Club.

“It was one of the toughest days on a golf course I’ve had in a long time,’’ McIlroy, who shot 73 on Saturday, said. I’ve put myself in this situation a few times in my career, and obviously have to go out and get it tomorrow. To play that back nine at even par today was a really good effort, I thought. “There’s a difference in thinking it and then actually being in the situation and believing it. That’s why I think people think, ‘Oh, it’s a piece of cake; it’s like a regular Tour event.’ But it’s not. “I certainly think it gives me an edge over the others, yeah,’’ Fitzpatrick said of his U.S. Amateur win. I think, myself included, and people on the outside maybe think it’s easier than it is. McIlroy is tied with Sam Burns and 36-hole co-leader Joel Dahmen at 1-under, a mere three shots out of the lead. To come back here and play so well again, it kind of just gives me growing confidence round by round.’’ He then went stunningly south, however, with a double bogey on No. 11, the tiny par-3 on which players hit wedges. He shares the lead with Will Zalatoris, the best young player in the sport, though he is still seeking his first career victory. Scheffler seemed ready to run and hide in the middle of his round, after he got to 6-under and a two-shot lead when he made the turn.

Zalatoris, who lost in a three-hole playoff at the PGA Championship last month, made only one bogey — a staggering feat on a beast of a Brookline course — for a ...

A former PGA Championship winner, he called it “probably the highlight of my whole entire life.” He was at 6 under and cruising until his wedge to a back pin on the 141-yard 11th hole bounced hard over the green and into deep rough. Denny McCarthy made the cut on the number at 3-over par. To play that back nine at even par today was a really good effort, I thought. Fitzpatrick, already a champion at The Country Club with his U.S. Amateur title in 2013, was equally steady and ran off three birdies over his last five holes for a 68. He made one birdie in his round of 73. He took two to the green and two puts later was no longer leading. Rahm's first shot from a fairway bunker hit the lip and nearly rolled into his footprint. Rahm wasn't upset with his swing on the final hole. That's what knocked defending champion Jon Rahm out of the lead on the final hole. It's not like Rahm had full rights to the lead. “Felt like I shot a 61,” Zalatoris said.

With temperatures running about 20 degrees cooler than Friday and the wind flipping around to the northwest brought a taste of fall to The Country Club, the ...

The problems continued as he left his second shot at the par-4 12th short of the green from in the fairway just 112 yards out and that lead to another bogey. His wedge hit the back edge of the green and bounded down the slope and on the edge of the penalty area. I made the double on 11, and I kind of just – when I walked off that one, I was, like, dude, just pretend you bogeyed 10 and birdied 8. Bradley was 3 over on his day after just six holes, but made five birdies over the final 12 holes to get to 2 under. They will use Nos. 1 and 18 in the two-hole aggregate playoff. He stared in disbelief for at least 10 seconds before moving back to the edge of the tee box. With three birdies between Nos. 14-17, he claimed the lead before leaving his tee shot on the 18th in the left bunker and then put his third into the bunker that stretches across the front. That moved him to 6 under and two shots clear of the field. At the 510-yard 15th, Fitzpatrick hit his tee ball 359 yards across the main driveway and left himself just 142 yards to the hole. He made his move beginning with the 619-yard, par-5 14th, reaching the green in two and making a two-putt birdie. I mean, we didn’t aim at a single flag even with some wedges just because you really only have a foot or two to deal with on these greens in some situations.” Only seven of the 64 players were under par on the day.

Fitzpatrick defeated Australian Oliver Goss to claim the 2013 U.S. Amateur, becoming the first Englishman to win the tournament in 102 years.

He has been itching to return to the course in a major setting for some time. If he keeps hitting shots like this one, he'll be primed to to lift another piece of hardware at The Country Club; this time, the U.S. Open trophy. He has a chance to once more etch his name into the hallowed course's history. If Fitzpatrick were able to win this year's U.S. Open, he'd be the first Englishman to win the tournament since Justin Rose did it in 2013. Although you’ve still got to hit the shots, knowing what you’ve achieved there in the past is a big help." Now he has a chance to notch his first major victory. Matthew Fitzpatrick is a 27-year-old English golfer seeking his first major victory. Fitzpatrick hasn't been able to reach those heights on American turf in the years since, but that may change soon. Matthew Fitzpatrick has been at Brookline before. Fitzpatrick first made a name for himself at Brookline in 2013 when he hoisted the gold U.S. Amateur trophy alongside his younger brother, Alex, who was his caddie during the tournament. He was a spindly 18-year-old the first time, hoping to make his mark in one of the preeminent amateur golf events in the United States: the U.S. Amateur Championship at The Country Club. So, who is Matthew Fitzpatrick? And how did his experience at the 2013 U.S. Amateur help prepare him for the 2022 U.S. Open? The Sporting News explains.

Zalatoris, who lost in a playoff at the PGA Championship last month at Southern Hills, made only one bogey – a staggering feat on a beast of a Brookline course ...

A former PGA champion, he called it “probably the highlight of my whole entire life.” He was at 6 under and cruising until his wedge to a back pin on the 141-yard 11th hole bounced hard over the green and into deep rough. If anything, he said it was getting dark and he didn’t notice his ball sitting down in the sand. Denny McCarthy made the cut on the number at 3-over par. To play that back nine at even par today was a really good effort, I thought. He made one birdie in his round of 73. “After that,” he said of his double bogey, “I didn’t really play that bad. This Saturday at Brookline was so wild that Rahm was the last of eight players who had at least a share of the lead at some point. He was equally steady and ran off three birdies over his last five holes for a 68. Rahm’s first shot from a fairway bunker hit the lip and nearly rolled into his footprint. That’s what knocked defending U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm out of the lead on the final hole. “Felt like I shot a 61,” Zalatoris said.

On land formerly shared with a horse track, Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick share the lead in a bunched pack of thoroughbreds heading into the final ...

An outlier, Zalatoris fired the round of the day, a 67 that was marked by just one bogey and a ton of discipline. With similar conditions expected for the final round, Zalatoris will likely employ a similar game plan. “I didn't know it was going to be that hard. “I knew it was going to be hard," Dahmen said. Dahmen, who didn't make a birdie but parred his last 11 holes on Saturday, is 1 under, but Morikawa squandered his title hopes with a 77, one of 10 scores of 7 over or worse on the round. Bradley birdied three of his final six holes and received a Sunday-victory-lap-like reception from the crowd on No. 18. “It's infuriating in a sense to finish that way with how good I played those holes, but like I kept telling myself, if on the 14th hole you tell me you can post 1-over par and not play the last five holes, I would have ran to the clubhouse because of how difficult it was playing. Scheffler jumped out to a two-shot lead after holing out from 101 yards at the par-5 eighth hole. The closing double knocked him from leader to chaser, but Rahm, still wearing last year’s championship belt proudly, kept that newfound perspective of a major champion. As expected with a U.S. Open test, the course rewarded great shots and punished average ones. The Country Club hadn’t hosted a U.S. Open since 1988, but it has certainly made up for lost time. But a deft and unfamiliar design that includes plenty of blind shots has turned these competitors uncomfortable while whipping winds, which flipped from previous days, and dipping temperatures have ramped up the treachery.

Nine years after winning the US Amateur title at the same venue, Fitzpatrick shares the lead heading into the final round of the year's third…

Rain showers taper off heading into Sunday afternoon, but an overhead cloud deck will keep temperatures in the 60s for the coolest day of the week. “I am one great round of golf away from doing it and that’s all I have to focus on.” It kind of kickstarted me.

Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick are the co-54 hole leaders at the U.S. Open. Both are searching for their first major championship at the Country Club ...

Rahm is trying to win his second major championship, becoming the first golfer since Brooks Koepka to win back-to-back U.S. Opens. He won the U.S. Amateur at the Country Club, the site of this year's U.S. Open, back in 2013. Zalatoris shot the round of the day with a three-under 67.

Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler, who tied for second, made it interesting down the stretch at the Country Club, but Fitzpatrick held on to finish at ...

Worse, on the diabolical 11th hole, Scheffler’s par putt from 7 feet rimmed the hole and lipped out for a second successive three-putt bogey that dropped him to four under par for the tournament. But a missed fairway off the 12th tee led to a layup short of the green and ultimately a bogey. He stumbled on the 10th hole when a lengthy second shot was short of the green and led to another bogey. But his tee shot on the par-3 sixth hole was excessively long, sailing 66 feet past the hole, which led to a bogey. Then the tiny 11th tormented Fitzpatrick as a 7-foot par putt skidded past the hole for a second successive bogey. But then Scheffler’s putting stroke deserted him as he needed three putts to get his ball in the hole from 38 feet on the 10th hole. Then, on the next hole, he sent his second shot into a greenside bunker, which led to a second successive bogey. Scheffler appeared to take a commanding lead in the tournament on Saturday with a sparkling front nine, but then gave it all back with a string of bogeys on the back nine. He steadied himself with three consecutive pars and at the par-3, 158-yard sixth hole, he drilled his tee shot 2 feet from the flag for an easy birdie. Fitzpatrick yanked his tee shot left into a yawning bunker, but from 156 yards he struck a crisp iron that bounded onto the green and stopped 17 feet from the hole. Zalatoris began the day tied for the lead with Fitzpatrick at four under par but faltered early when he three-putted from 67 feet below the second hole for a bogey. He held a two-stroke advantage over Scheffler, who had teed off two groups before Fitzpatrick and Zalatoris, the third-round leaders.

The 27-year-old Englishman followed a top-10 finish at last month's PGA Championship with his first major victory in Brookline, Mass., on Sunday.

Zalatoris remedied that somewhat with a brilliant birdie from nine feet on the par-3 No. 16 to add pressure, and they came to No. 18 with Scheffler just done at 5 under after his 67, with Zalatoris at 5 under and Fitzpatrick at 6 under. The first happened on No. 15, when Fitzpatrick and Zalatoris stood tied at 5 under and Fitzpatrick teed off wide right into one of those deals where a player needs to part the crowd just to take the shot. His birdie from there rolled right down the boulevard without much doubt, while Zalatoris played from rough on the other side of the fairway and made a bogey. He did it to relegate Zalatoris, that 25-year-old habitual contender in major tournaments, to a third runner-up finish and a sixth top-10 finish in merely nine tries at the big four. Fitzpatrick did it after a day of gripping competition in which he, Zalatoris and Scheffler separated themselves for a three-man tussle at the top, each grabbing the lead at some point. From that sand, on the left side of the 18th fairway, Fitzpatrick forged the shot likely to stoke reminiscence when this rowdy 122nd U.S. Open becomes a matter of the distant past.

Matt Fitzpatrick, the 27-year-old from Yorkshire, won by one from Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler while Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa finished tied ...

I thought it was a course that you could play pretty well at and a course that could kind of hurt you in the back pretty quickly. With birdies at the 14th and 15th, McIlroy was minus two and back in with a small shout. McIlroy made par at the tricky 2nd but dropped a shot at the 3rd, a hole which caused him issues in three of the four rounds. From there, he hit a towering, terrific iron into the heart of the green. The actions of a champion. Enter Scheffler. A terrific approach to the 17th set up a birdie three, and cut Fitzpatrick’s lead to one. A Zalatoris birdie at the short 11th meant a two-shot lead at six under. A Zalatoris bogey was the natural outcome. To the 72nd hole; where the Englishman hit his drive into a bunker. He dropped a shot at the 12th and carved his drive into rough at the 13th, from where he could only chip sideways. The duo were now tied at minus five, with Scheffler missing the opportunity to join the party up ahead at the par five 14th green. Scheffler joined him with a birdie at the 5th.

Matt Fitzpatrick finished at 6 under to prevail at The Country Club, one shot ahead of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris.

The game’s there. "The game’s there. "I hope many 7 overs aren’t coming in the future, but it just kind of made me refocus and kind of just get back into things," Morikawa said. It was another heartbreaking ending for Zalatoris, who lost in a playoff to Justin Thomas in the PGA Championship last month. After reaching 6 under, Scheffler bogeyed 10 after an errant drive and then three-putted the 11th (which was playing just 108 yards) for bogey. Fitzpatrick closed with a 2-under-par 68 to finish at 6 under.

Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick won the U.S. Open on Sunday, winning his first major on the same course where he took the U.S. Amateur title nine years earlier.

Fitzpatrick also became the 13th men's golfer overall to win both the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Open in his career. At 27, Fitzpatrick is also the youngest player from England to win a major since Tony Jacklin at the 1970 U.S. Open. He said, 'Finally. Congratulations for winning in the States,'" Fitzpatrick said of Nicklaus. He is the second player from England over the past 50 years to win the U.S. Open, joining Justin Rose in 2013. He was even more clutch from a fairway bunker on the 18th that set up par for a 2-under 68. Zalatoris was a runner-up in the second straight major.

Jupiter resident Matt Fitzpatrick has won the U.S. Open, winning his first major on the same course where he took the U.S. Amateur title nine years earlier.

Nicklaus won at Pebble Beach in 1961 and 1972. Zalatoris had a 14-foot birdie putt to tie, but missed it by a fraction. But he hit the middle of the green and two-putted from 18 feet for par.

The U.S. Open had a little of everything -- from off-the-course drama to a wild finish in which Matt Fitzpatrick walked away with his first major title.

That put the U.S. Open in the crosshairs for Mickelson's return to competitive golf in the United States. His days of playing competitive golf against the best players in the world are over. While we might have been expecting too much from a 52-year-old who hadn't played a competitive round in the U.S. since late January, his best days on the course are clearly in the rearview mirror. LIV Golf is expected to announce the 48-man field for the Portland event early this week. The USGA was put in a difficult position when PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan suspended 17 players for playing in LIV Golf's inaugural event outside London last week. "The golf course, obviously, got some rain [Saturday], so it was a little more receptive than it's been all week, which probably is why you see some lower scores coming down the stretch," said Gary Woodland, the 2019 U.S. Open winner. That's why I don't understand for the guys that are a similar age to me going because I would like to believe that my best days are still ahead of me, and I think theirs are, too. The Country Club hadn't hosted the U.S. Open since 1988, when Curtis Strange defeated Nick Faldo in a playoff. Now, he has won two of the biggest golf events in the world on the same course. "I certainly think it gives me an edge over the others, yeah," Fitzpatrick said the night before the final round. "I think, myself included, and people on the outside maybe think it's easier than it is. "At the end of the day, they're just really hard to win.

*All products featured on Golf Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an ...

In all, Fitzpatrick—previously a seven-time European Tour winner—made more than 80 feet of putts over the final nine holes. That meant using a special high-strength titanium originally designed for the Mars Lander. The lighter and faster-flexing alloy (ATI 425) means more design freedom to create extra off-center-hit stability in the TSi2 and movable weight in the more pear-shaped TSi3. Fitzpatrick put the blade-style putter, which includes face grooves just like the Tracy II, in play in 2020. The win bookends Fitzpatrick’s 2013 U.S. Amateur win at the same venue and the familiar surroundings clearly agreed with him. Zalatoris dropped a shot with a bogey at 15, but with Scheffler about to knot him with a birdie at 17, Fitz dropped a 19-footer for another birdie at 15 after a brilliant iron approach from a bare patch 230 yards out that proved to be the difference. However things really got interesting starting at the 13th, where Fitz dropped a 48-foot putt for birdie to seemingly take the lead until Zalatoris dropped a lengthy putt for par.

Fitzpatrick just barely outplayed Will Zalatoris to win his first major golf tournament, winning by one stroke in Massachusetts on Sunday.

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Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler, who tied for second, made it interesting down the stretch at the Country Club, but Fitzpatrick held on to finish at ...

But Scheffler’s putting stroke deserted him on the back nine when he bogeyed the 10th and 11th holes when he needed three putts to get his ball in the hole on both greens. But a missed fairway off the 12th tee led to a layup short of the green and ultimately a bogey. That dropped him to four under par for the tournament. He stumbled on the 10th hole when a lengthy second shot was short of the green and led to another bogey. But his tee shot on the par-3 sixth hole was excessively long, sailing 66 feet past the hole, which led to a bogey. Then, on the next hole, he sent his second shot into a greenside bunker, which led to a second successive bogey. Then the tiny 11th tormented Fitzpatrick as a 7-foot par putt skidded past the hole for a second successive bogey. On Sunday, Scheffler carved up the front nine again, with four birdies in his first six holes. But his 3-wood on the 444-yard, par-4 18th hole was ripped left and landed in the center of a yawning bunker just off the fairway. He steadied himself with three consecutive pars and at the par-3, 158-yard sixth hole, he drilled his tee shot 2 feet from the flag for an easy birdie. In the past year, Fitzpatrick, now No. 10 in the men’s world golf rankings, has worked tirelessly off the course to increase the speed of his swing, which leads to greater distance, and usually to lower scores. BROOKLINE, Mass. — This year’s U.S. Open began as the setting for an unprecedented showdown between golfers who had remained loyal to the established PGA Tour and a breakaway pack of ex-colleagues who recently joined the new, rebel Saudi-backed LIV Golf series.

It was Fitzpatrick's first PGA TOUR win, and he becomes the 13th player and first non-American to win the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open. He's also the second, ...

Fitzpatrick still looks like a kid, which is to say he doesn’t look all that different from the player who won here in 2013, with the exception of the logos and maybe a few extra pounds. Jon Rahm captured the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, the site of his first TOUR win and not far from the hiking trails where he proposed to his wife. Fitzpatrick is the first player since Danny Willett at the 2016 Masters to notch his first TOUR win at a major. “Yeah, just happy to be unbeaten around this place.” If you’re a certain type of dewy-eyed dreamer, you can still squint at Matt and Alex and see Ouimet and his own kid-caddie, Eddie Lowery, in 1913. “That’s going to look bad on TV. I’ve said for a long time he deserves one more than anyone I can think of. You could take it as pressure, who knows how it’s going to go, but he stayed calm and had a good game plan. The final hurdle for Fitzpatrick, having driven into the fairway bunker on 18, was clearing the lip that had thwarted Jon Rahm the day before. The relationship between a player and a golf course can mean more than meets the eye. Fitzpatrick’s 17 top-10s without a win were the most on TOUR since the start of the 2019-20 season. Zalatoris, who lost playoffs at the Farmers Insurance Open (Luke List) and PGA Championship (Justin Thomas) earlier this season, and who also was seeking his first TOUR win, had a birdie putt on 18 to force a playoff, but it burned the left edge. This is horrible (laughter).’ And up to that point really, I'd really not missed many shots.