GUIDONIA MONTECELIO, Italy – Hindsight rules at the Ryder Cup and Matthew Fitzmagic’s day at Marco Simone was the ultimate armchair moment.
The man who’d never earned a point in five Ryder Cup matches and had never played a fourball session performed like Seve Ballesteros on Day 1, with four birdies and an eagle through his first six holes on his way to a convincing 5-and-3 victory over Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa.
Technically, Rory McIlroy was teamed with Fitzpatrick in the fourball bout, but the raucous masses would be forgiven for thinking the Englishman was going solo. McIlroy certainly felt like an afterthought for much of the match.
“For the first nine holes I was trying to hang on to this man’s coattails. I said to him walking up 10, ‘At least I contributed twice,’” laughed McIlroy, who went 2-0 on Friday at a Ryder Cup for the first time in his career.
On a historic day of firsts for the home team, including its first sweep of an opening session and the first time the American side failed to win a full point, Fitzpatrick’s breakthrough was as dominant as it was inspired.
Fitzpatrick began his match with six one-putts for an early 5-up lead and on a day when there was no shortage of European stars – you need a village to build a five-point lead – Fitzpatrick stood out even among the likes of McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland.
European captain Luke Donald admitted that he needed production from the top of his lineup to put the U.S. team on the ropes, but his goal from the outset was to get Fitzpatrick a point.
“It’s a personal goal of mine to, one, play him in a fourball - he had only played the foursomes the last two Ryder Cups – and get him a point,” Donald said. “You could see the look in his eye on the first tee. He was so, so ready to get off to a good start. He was 6 under through six holes on his own ball. He was carrying Rory.”
Fitzpatrick’s assault slowed on the back nine, but the Americans never managed to get closer than 4 down and the Europeans closed out the match on the 15th hole to chants of “ole, ole.”
“I was having goosebumps,” Fitzpatrick said. “I made the putt [at No. 5] and the crowd had been going crazy. I felt like I was hitting it well and I felt like as soon as I got on the green, I had a chance, didn’t matter where I was on the green. You have days like that. You have days where it’s the complete opposite, but I was happy to take advantage of that today.”
The experience was entirely different than his first two Ryder Cups, which were both played in the United States. In 2016 as a rookie, he played just a single team match, during the Saturday foursomes session, and was rolled by Dustin Johnson in singles, 4 and 3.
“I effectively played nine holes in 2016 because I only had half the shots in the morning on Saturday, and didn’t play Friday and didn’t play Saturday afternoon,” he said.
His second turn in ’21 at Whistling Straits didn’t go any better. He lost both foursomes sessions paired with Lee Westwood, 2 and 1, and he and Daniel Berger played a meaningless singles match after the cup had already been decided (that Fitzpatrick lost). His Ryder Cup experience had been anything but memorable, which made Friday’s performance at Marco Simone worth more than a simple point for the European team.
That his first point in the Ryder Cup came at a home match alongside McIlroy, whom he counts as a friend, only made the moment that more meaningful.
“Absolutely incredible,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s a hell of a lot better than playing away, that’s for sure. It’s just so different and the energy that you get from them is huge. As I said after the round, from the moment we teed off, it was incredible.”
Hindsight is the poison of the Ryder Cup and playing the result always wins, but imagine how things could have been different for Padraig Harrington, the ’21 European captain, or Darren Clarke, the ’16 captain, if they would have opted to send Fitzpatrick out in the fourball sessions with McIlroy. We might not have had to wait so long for Fitzmagic.
