Alex Fitzpatrick hailed a “super special” round as he emerged from the shadow of his Major Champion brother Matt at The 151st Open Championship.
Seven birdies and just a single dropped shot took the younger Fitzpatrick sibling to a round of 65 and a top-ten total of four under par for the week on his Major Championship debut.
Fitzpatrick said: “Super special round. Me and my caddie had a great time out there and things went our way, which was super cool. Bit lost for words really.
“I don’t know how many fans are out there, and I know most of them are following the likes of Rory (McIlroy), (Jon) Rahm, all of them, but I had a lot of people out watching me. A lot of familiar faces and that made it a bit special.”
Fitzpatrick’s most recent result was fourth place in the Italian Challenge Open on the European Challenge Tour, where he also has top-10 finishes this season at the B-NL Challenge Trophy and The Challenge presented by KGA as he bids to earn a DP World Tour card.
His only action of last July was the Horizon Irish Open, where he played on an invitation and missed the cut after two rounds of 76.
He has been able to shrug off any pressure at Royal Liverpool 12 months on, saying: “The importance of the event creeps into your mind a bit but I said at the start of the week I’m out here to enjoy myself and it didn’t matter how I did, and I enjoyed myself a lot today.
“Realistically it doesn’t matter how tomorrow goes. Obviously I would like to play well but it’s been an amazing week that I’ll always remember, being with my brother and my family and all that sort of stuff. It’s just been a super cool week.”
Lying one shot ahead of McIlroy, two clear of his brother and two behind Rahm, among the other illustrious names on the leaderboard, he said: “They’re the best players in the world.
"I aspire to be like a lot of the guys who are on that leaderboard. I feel like when I play my own game and play well I can compete for the most part.
“(Winning the Claret Jug) hasn’t even crossed my mind, I’ll be honest. Even after the round today – I thought about, when I saw my name, being in contention, and winning the Claret Jug would obviously be a dream, but there’s a million top players who are still ahead of me.”
Matt Fitzpatrick shot a 67 of his own on Saturday but Alex said: “There’ll be no rivalry or anything like that. We’re brothers as much as we’re golfers - I root for him, he roots for me.
“I’m very grateful he shot a good round today and it’ll be a nice dinner tonight, I’m sure. I don’t get to play with him very often – it’s hard to beat him when you only play about three events in your lifetime together!”
He admits the bigger rivalry is with his girlfriend Rachel Kuehn, a leading American amateur who is preparing to play in next week’s Amundi Evian Championship co-sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour and LPGA Tour.
“Definitely the girlfriend, 100 per cent,” he smiled. “Lots of chipping comps, lots of putting comps – she claims she wins all the time but she knows the truth.
“She’s an amazing player, she has her own game. She’s preparing for the Evian next week so she’s pretty excited.”
