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Matt Fitzpatrick found himself near the top of the leaderboard after The Players Championship kicked off this week, and it seems like that has something to do with a somewhat embarrassing equipment oversight he was finally able to address after spending a year attempting to figure out what was wrong with his driving game.
Matt Fitzpatrick headed to TPC Sawgrass sitting in 11th place on the Official World Golf Ranking and had a very solid opening round on Thursday, as he headed into the clubhouse at -6 while only missing three fairways over the course of his first 18 holes.
That was a very positive development for the 29-year-old Englishman who hit around 62% of his fairways during the 2021-2022 PGA Tour season (the campaign where he won his first major at the U.S. Open) but has seen that number fall closer to 57% since it wrapped up.
It may not be the most dramatic dip you’ll ever see, but it’s obviously still an issue that can’t be overlooked in a sport where every stroke matters—especially when you consider Fitzpatrick spent around a year trying to figure out why so many of his drives tended to drift to the left even when it feels like he’s making solid contact.
According to Golf Channel, Fitzpatrick was able to get to the bottom of that mystery last month when he had his clubs regripped only to discover there was a four-gram weight attached to the shaft of his driver—a seemingly minor but nonetheless significant alteration that was installed when he was testing out some potential tweaks in February 2023.
The outlet says the extra weight contributed to the rotation of the club face and led to Fitzpatrick routinely missing to the left.
He admitted the piece of equipment had somehow slipped his mind entirely before realizing it was the culprit once it was removed, and while he won two tournaments in 2023 in spite of it, he positioned it as a significant hindrance, saying:
“For whatever reason, I just forgot that it was ever in there,
“I wouldn’t say it was OK. Maybe I’d have won four times if I had it out. We were just very confused, swing-wise.”
As soon as it came out and I hit it the next day, it felt night and day. I could hit it as hard as I want and it wouldn’t go left. Previously, I felt like I hit it hard, and it would just go straight left.”
As of this writing, Fitzpatrick is two strokes off of the lead at The Players Championship and sitting in fifth place at -8.