But after back-to-back rounds of 72, Fitzpatrick will not play the weekend at Royal Birkdale, finishing with a two-day score of four-over to miss his first cut of the season. After signing his scorecard, Fitzpatrick briefly chatted with the media, pointing to bad links-golf luck and not poor play as the reason his major season will end in disappointing fashion.
“You’ve just got to look at three or four holes for me,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’ve hit decent shots, gotten no luck and come away with four-over par. That’s the way links golf is. You need to have that rub of the green sometimes, and I didn’t have it this week.”
The Englishman played some practice rounds at Royal Birkdale a few weeks ago, but the course has significantly dried out since Fitzpatrick’s visit. The firm-and-fast conditions of a burnt-out Birkdale provided some strategic questions that Fitzpatrick didn’t answer properly over the first two days in Southport. While he has gotten longer off the tee in recent years, Fitzpatrick did not feel he had the length off the tee to avoid some of the perilous pot bunkers, which forced him to lay back a lot of times and rely on getting the right bounces once his ball got on the ground. In the end, Fitzpatrick felt those bounces never came. In fact, the opposite occurred on Friday as he tried to engineer a cut-line charge.
“I didn’t feel like I hit many bad shots all week.” Fitzpatrick reiterated. “It’s a golf course that’s just awkward when it plays like this. For me, I don’t feel like I’ve got my length to take out some of the bunkers, and then you’re relying on bounces, and then you’re not going to be hitting your 6-iron close with how firm the greens are. Yeah, just played for four or five fliers yesterday, didn’t get one. Played for one today — didn’t play for one today and got it. That’s the way links golf is. It’s a lot of luck of the draw and rub of the green.”
Fitzpatrick’s second round started with birdies at two and five around a bogey at the fourth. Then, Fitzpatrick ran into trouble at the par-4 sixth. The 2022 U.S. Open champion hit his tee shot into the rough and then caught a flier lie on his second, sending his ball into a bush. He made bogey. Fitzpatrick dropped another shot at the seventh when his tee shot landed on the green but didn’t hang on the putting surface, eventually settling 30 feet from the pin. He hit his second shot to 20 feet and missed the par putt. Fitzpatrick made birdie at 11 to get back within one of the cut line, but his weekend charge crashed and burned a few minutes later. Fitzpatrick’s tee shot at the par-3 12th came up short and plugged in the face of the greenside bunker. Fitzpatrick tried to blast it out, but his ball hit the face and ricocheted back into the bunker. He made double bogey.
To Fitzpatrick, those few swings encapsulated an opportunity lost.
“It is disappointing, but like I say, I didn’t really feel like I played that bad,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’ve hit three shots today that I’ve hit them exactly how I wanted them, and one is in a bush 30 yards long. One has basically been on the green for basically 15 seconds and then dropped off the green, and that’s another dropped shot. Then I’ve hit one that somehow has gone less than the normal number, and there’s 15 yards of help downwind. Now all of a sudden you’re plugged in the face of a bunker. So I’ve got four shots, and three shots I’ve hit good. That’s the way links golf is. When it’s this firm, there’s a lot of luck of the bounces and luck of the lies. It is what it is.”
Fitzpatrick’s season has been the best of his career. He even says he’s played better this year than when he triumphed at Brookline Country Club to win the U.S. Open. He won the Valspar, the RBC Heritage and the Zurich Classic with his brother, Alex. But he has finished no better than a tie for 14th at any of the majors, and his major season ended with some bad links luck and a short stay at Royal Birkdale.
