Matt Fitzpatrick strengthens bid for Ryder Cup debut
Monday 6 June 2016 10:26, UK
Matt Fitzpatrick insisted he was trying to "play down" his chances of a Ryder Cup debut following his three-shot win at the Nordea Masters.
Fitzpatrick displayed composure beyond his 21 years to safely protect his overnight five-shot lead as a solid final-round 71 proved enough to hold off Lasse Jensen and Nicolas Colsaerts at Bro Hof Slott.
The young Englishman had endured a poor run of results since posting his only top-10 finish of the season at The Masters in April, when a superb final-round 67 lifted him into a tie for seventh - five shots behind Danny Willett.
Fitzpatrick missed the cut by one shot in his next three starts, but he roared back to form in Stockholm to pick up his second European Tour title following his impressive wire-to-wire victory in the British Masters supported by Sky Sports at Woburn in October.
He remains fourth on the European points list in the Ryder Cup standings, but the win in Sweden extended his advantage over fifth-placed Andy Sullivan to almost 270,000 points.
"It's something I'm trying to play down a little bit," said Fitzpatrick, who became the youngest ever winner of the Nordea Masters as previous record holder Graeme McDowell had just turned 23 when he lifted the title in 2002.
"I'm really trying to play each week as it comes and there's still a long way to go before then, there are still three majors and anyone can win them. Hopefully I'll keep playing well and see where we end up come September."
Asked to rate his progress since his maiden Tour victory at Woburn, Fitzpatrick added: "I'm completely a million miles ahead of schedule.
"It's been a tough few weeks to be fair. After the Masters I had three missed cuts in a row and didn't play as well as I'd like at Wentworth last week, and all of a sudden you turn up this week and pick up a win.
"I'll never forget my first win, but this is a special one for me as well. To win once, people might say that was lucky but to win twice and people might have a little bit more confidence in you. So it's nice to back that up.
"It's great to see some of those names on the trophy, like Nick Faldo, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald. It's brilliant. I think I noticed Tony Jacklin's name on there as well, and there's some great foreign players as well, so I'm delighted.
"I was just trying to stick to my game plan today, as I didn't want to chase. Thought that would be silly of me to try and do that. I think the first time I was ale to really relax was once I found the green on the 17th.
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"There's no bailout on that hole. When I actually hit it and I thought that's a great shot, and it should be really close. It came down and it looked close, and then it started spinning and my heart was in my mouth. And I'm sure my dad at home was panicking about that one."
