In the first victory of his PGA career, England’s Matt Fitzpatrick won the US Open on Sunday. by beating the Americans Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, in a heart-stopping finale.
Fitzpatrick, ranked 18th, is the seventh golfer to open his record with a Grand Slam title and the first to do so since Danny Willett did so by winning the 2016 Augusta Masters.
Zalatoris, also fighting for his first tour title, had a chance to force the tiebreaker on the last hole, but missed a dramatic 14-foot putt that put Fitzpatrick on a platter at The Country Club in Brookline ( Massachusetts).
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This is how Fitzpatrick received his first victory in a Major
“I’m speechless, this is what you dream of growing up. It’s something I’ve worked so hard for for a long time,” Fitzpatrick said excitedly. “Having my first win in a ‘Major’, there is nothing better.”
For Zalatoris, on the other hand, it was a new lost opportunity after falling in May in the PGA Championship playoff against Justin Thomas and also being runner-up in the Masters in 2021. The Californian remains the best positioned player in the ranking (14) without release his record.
Fitzpatrick, 27, finished Sunday with a card of 68 shots (-2) and a cumulative 274 (-6), one ahead of Zalatoris and Scheffler. The Englishman, who had started the day in the co-leadership with Zalatoris, succeeds the Spanish Jon Rahm in the record of the US Open.
Jon Rahm, from fighting for the title to collapsing and leaving the top 10
Second-ranked Rahm, who entered his round trailing the co-leaders by a single shot, had an unfortunate 74-shot performance (+4) and finished in 12th place.
On Saturday, Rahm had been the sturdiest of the favorites in the day’s terrifying wind, only relinquishing the top of the table when he bunkered the ball twice on the final hole, making a double bogey.
Even so, the Spaniard aspired to impose his greatest experience against Fitzpatrick and Zalatoris in the decisive round. A year ago, Rahm had celebrated his first Grand Slam victory at the Open held in La Jolla (California), which was also the first for Spanish golf.
But on Sunday Rahm soon handed over his chances of defending the title in the first part of the course in which he made two bogeys and did not achieve any birdies.
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Misguided on the fairway, the Spaniard did not improve after the turn either and closed the second part of the course with another three bogeys and a single birdie.
Although they watched with relief as Rahm deflated, Zalatoris and Fitzpatrick were quickly overtaken by Scottie Scheffler, who flew early in the day with four birdies over the first six holes.
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The winner of the last Augusta Masters aspired to join the absent Tiger Woods as the only golfers to have won the US Open while being number one in the world.
As Scheffler accelerated, Zalatoris tumbled down with two bogeys on the first three holes. The American, however, rejoined the race when both Scheffler and Fitzpatrick stumbled into back-to-back bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes.
The final stretch of the tournament turned into a three-way duel, with Fitzpatrick reaching a two-shot lead with only three shots to play. Scheffler was the first to finish his round and left the course tied with Zalatoris, both one shot away from Fitzpatrick, who only had to hold out on the last hole.
Tension rose as Fitzpatrick sent his tee shot into the bunker, giving Zalatoris wings to charge for the tie. The Englishman, however, hit a fabulous approach shot from the sand that allowed him to close the last hole even while Zalatoris, with all the pressure on him, missed the putt that would have sent the tournament to a final playoff.
Fitzpatrick will receive a record $3.15 million for the win out of a total purse of $17.5 million. All of these figures are down from last week’s first event of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, which offered $4.75 million to the winner (Charl Schwartzel) and dished out a total of $25 million.
Colombian Juan Sebastián Muñoz was the best Latin American in the tournament. After a bad start on Thursday, with 74 hits (+4), the Bogota native did not have rounds above par again and finished with 282 hits (+2), in box 14.
SPORTS
with AFP
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