sport news Golf nerd Matt Fitzpatrick is already getting phone calls from the greatest ... trends now
Russell Fitzpatrick spent his working life dispensing advice as a bank manager but on this occasion in 2013 he was the one seeking counsel. 'Tell me your honest opinion,' he asked me, his eyes pleading with a parent's love. 'Do you think my son Matt is good enough to make it?'
Anyone who spends their time around the professional game knows it's an impossible question to answer. Golf is so hard and so cruel at times, as good people are chewed up and spat out all the time. Very few come from wealthy backgrounds.
So when their offspring do make it, you think: thank the Lord for that. When they become rich and famous without losing their heads, you say to yourself: good on them.
The joy was unconfined as Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick won the US Open on Sunday
Matt celebrated with father Russell (left), brother Alex (second left) and mother Sue (right)
When they reach the mountain top and win the US Open, as Matt did on Sunday, well no wonder the joy was unconfined, and not only on the 18th green for the close-knit family of four. Fitzpatrick's victory on Sunday was, quite simply, as good as golf gets.
Who better than Jack Nicklaus to sum it up? The Golden Bear doesn't watch much golf these days but he sat riveted like the rest of us as the Englishman delivered the shot of a lifetime at the end of perhaps the greatest round that a British golfer has ever played — at least tee to green.
'That was one of the most exciting final rounds I have ever seen and Matt's shot on the 18th was one of the greatest iron shots under pressure that I've ever seen,' opined the greatest golfer of all.
You could see what it meant to Fitzpatrick as he took the call from the 18-time major champion, the only other to win the US Open and the US Amateur at the same venue (Jack did it at Pebble Beach).
Jack Nicklaus sat riveted like the rest of us as the Englishman delivered the shot of a lifetime
'Honestly, getting a call from him means the world,' said Fitzpatrick, just the third Englishman to win the US Open since 1924, following Tony Jacklin in 1970 and Justin Rose in 2013. 'Any time your name is ranked with him is confirmation of what you're trying to achieve.'
The late Peter Alliss always said that Sir Nick Faldo's final-round 67 at the Masters in 1996, when he hunted down Greg Norman, was the best he witnessed. In years to come, Fitzpatrick's will surely be ranked alongside it.
Only three golfers in the last 30 years have hit 17 greens in regulation in the final round to win a major: Faldo in 1996, Brooks Koepka at the US Open in 2017, and now Fitzpatrick.
What made the latter's achievement stand out even in this elite company was the venue. The greens at the original Country Club are really small, traditional targets, and particularly hard to hit if you're not standing in the middle of the fairway.
He said Fitzpatrick's shot on the 18th was one of the greatest iron shots under pressure ever
Compounding the difficulty was the fact Fitzpatrick was placed under immense pressure from his opening tee shot, and by a charging world No 1 in Scottie Scheffler at that, plus the brilliant, engaging young American Will Zalatoris, his playing partner in the final group.
Yet Fitzpatrick flat outplayed both of them. Time
