Heralded as one of the most promising talents to grace the game in recent times, Matthew Fitzpatrick will finally have the opportunity to mix it with the great and good of The European Tour in 2015, thanks to a suitably impressive turn at the Qualifying School Final Stage.
For those up and coming amateurs preparing to grace the professional ranks, it can often be a daunting time in their embryonic careers, as they attempt to build on the success they have previously enjoyed within the unpaid environment.
This Sheffield native, however, who burst to prominence with his US Amateur Championship victory in 2013 and has since impressed on the Major stage, looks ready and able to compete at the top level having turned some consistent form on the European Challenge Tour into Qualifying School success this year.
His ten under par total at the end of six gruelling rounds at PGA Catalunya Resort earned the 20 year old the 11thcard at the stunning European Tour Destination outside Girona.
Clearly elated at his achievement in north eastern Spain, Fitzpatrick spoke of just how happy he was to validate the hype that has surrounded his career in recent years after spending much of the campaign without any real status, having turned professional in June off the back of a tie for 48th at the US Open Championship.
“This season I’ve been in a little bit of limbo,” said the former World Amateur Number One, who aims to do more than just keep his card in 2015.
“Playing on my European Tour invites this season, I realised that I want to be doing that every week. We’re just so well looked after, and at the Scottish Open in particular I didn’t play too well, but the event was fantastic and made me think that I want to do it every week. Of course everyone says that, but now I have the chance to, and I can’t believe it.
“It is definitely nice to validate the hype that has been around me over the last couple of years, and for me that is the really nice thing, to prove I can do it. Since I’ve turned pro it has perhaps been slow progress, and I made that one step, and now it is time to go to the next, and I’ll keep doing my best.
“For me it has to be the case that while I want to keep my card for next year, it is not what I should be aiming for, as I want to do well. You don’t want to think about just keeping your card, as it then becomes more like protecting a lead, playing safe, so you just want to go for it and play well.
“It is different playing professional golf, and I am enjoying it. The travel is good, it can be tough at times, but you see new places and get well looked after. This is what I have wanted to be since I was young, so no complaints at all.”
Fitzpatrick cashed his first cheque as a professional thanks to a tie for 29thplace at the Irish Open, but it was on the second tier where he really proved his mettle in 2014.
He teed it up nine times on the Challenge Tour in the latter half of the year, recording four top 10 finishes in the process, and in the final round of The Foshan Open he fired the lowest round of his professional career so far – a seven under par 65 – to post a career-best tie for sixth in China.
He would eventually finish in 48thon the Rankings, missing out on a place at the Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final hosted by Al Badia Golf Club by just three spots. From there he dusted himself down and duly finished in the top five at his Qualifying School Second Stage venue – Campo de Golf El Saler – before completing his European Tour ascent the following week at the Final.
For a golfer that has been to the very summit of the amateur game, plying his trade on the grandest stages in the process, Fitzpatrick speaks in glowing terms of his time on the Challenge Tour. On the back of that he will now look to work hard on the necessary improvements he feels his game requires in order to make that next step in his career.
“The Challenge Tour has been a great experience,” said the 2015 European Tour rookie. “The way I look at it, in terms of where I want to get to, it has been the start of the learning curve. It is where I gained my experience, and in a way, it might have been slightly better – in terms of gaining the most experience – if I had played a full season on the Challenge Tour. Then I could have finished top 15 and got my card, rather than through the Q-School, where it is bam and you’ve got your card.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have played on The European Tour, and Challenge Tour, and have therefore got good experience going into next season.
“It was different, and I have learned from that – like going out a day late to China, little things like that, experience, and trying my best and learning from it. It was the best grounding to help me start my professional career.
“I just want to get better in every aspect and am always trying to improve. Everyone always says the same things about me needing to get in the gym and get bigger, and I probably do. At the same time though, they played the Open de España at PGA Catalunya and I felt long enough playing in Q-School there, albeit in different conditions.
“I was thinking just the other week though, that if I got my card, then I’d get the chance to play practice rounds with the best players in the world. Whether it be Justin (Rose) or Rory (McIlroy), you might get a chance to play with those guys, and I’m lucky enough to have a great management group that might sort me games with Lee (Westwood) or whoever it might be. I just need to keep learning and then take it from there.”
