Matt Fitzpatrick continues climb back from 'lowest' point at The Open

Just four months on from the “lowest” point of his career, Matt Fitzpatrick shared the lead on day one of The Open Championship.

The Englishman is a Major Champion, nine-time DP World Tour winner and Ryder Cup winner but he admitted last week at the Genesis Scottish Open that it had been a “tough” last 18 months.

Between his victory at the 2023 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship in March, he recorded just four worldwide top tens, a drought by his high standards.

But since missing the cut at Sawgrass and in his next start at the Valero Texas Open, he has made nine consecutive weekends, with three top tens in his last six appearances.

An opening 67 at Royal Portrush represented his best start at an Open Championship by two shots and the 30-year-old believes recent changes have made him understand his own game better.

“THE PLAYERS this year, it was really bad,” he said. “And even Valero, kind of a couple of weeks later, I couldn't find the face with the ball. It was just not good.

“That's the lowest I've been, I felt, in my career. Statistically it could be the worst run that I've played as well. I just didn't feel good or know where it was going.

“For me, it's kind of like just change my technique with my irons. I got to understand my tendencies a lot better to understand what I need to do to fix that.

“Kind of unfortunate circumstances in a way... well, very unfortunate circumstances really, but started working with Mark Blackburn and he's given me a lot of time. I feel like just a bit of change of information has made me understand myself a little bit better.

“From there I feel like I've just had more consistency and from there, from consistency, you can kind of build confidence and keep calm.

“RBC (Canadian Open), that's when I saw Mark for the first time and kind of with advice from my trainers Andrew and Luke, it was on how my body is, I have really long arms, so that's got to be factored-in in what we're working on.

“At that point, kind of everything changed, with my approach play anyway.”

With an eagle, three birdies – including a chip-in slam-dunk at the treacherous 16th – and a single bogey, Fitzpatrick was four under in Northern Ireland.

His 2023 victory in Scotland proves he can play links golf and he is at something of a loss as to why he has never finished higher than 20th in nine previous Open starts.

“Honestly, I don't really know,” he said when asked to pinpoint his issues in his home Major.

“I wouldn't say I particularly enjoy playing links golf... it's just a grind all the time, isn't it? I like a grind but sometimes it's a grind with low scoring and that's what I find difficult. I like hitting it to 30 feet and making a par and it's a great par; you know what I mean?

“I was looking at the winning score here, Shane was obviously six ahead, but 12 under would have gotten you top five maybe. I don't necessarily see links golf as, ‘oh, yeah, this is super easy. I can breeze round in four under'. I shot four under today, holed an eagle putt, chipped in, and I still feel like it was a grind out there.

“I don't know if it's just the way I see the game might be different but I feel like I've got the shots to play well. I hit it as low as anyone out here, so it should stay out of the wind. But I just don't think it's necessarily as easy as some of these guys make it look.”