RBC HERITAGE

April 17, 2025

Matt Fitzpatrick

Harbour Town Golf Links

Quick Quotes

Q. Really solid start. What was working particularly well in your game?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, I played well on the holes that I needed to play well on. There's some holes that you're happy to walk away with a par and some that you need to score on, and I did exactly that.

Yeah, I think everything was pretty solid today. I wouldn't say anything crazily stood out. I felt like I putted really well, chipped it really well, hit my irons where I needed to and hit the fairways where I needed to.

Q. Statistically you've obviously played well here, but the statistic makeup of the course and the statistic makeup of your game, would they normally be things that suit each other well?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Probably when I first came out on TOUR, yeah, definitely. I think things have changed a little bit now. But I like the golf course. Obviously even my friends always tell me that it must be a good golf course if I've played bad and still like it.

I've had my fair share of poor results here and obviously I've had good results here, too. I obviously love it, and I think having that definitely feeling helps.

Q. What have you taken away from your season thus far?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Not a lot. It's rubbish, simple as that. It's been awful. Yeah, it's been the worst I've ever played, in fact. So yeah, was plenty of room for improvement. Hopefully this is a good week to make a start. I feel like I've done some things this week that hopefully get me back on track and go from there.

Q. Have you just been chasing your swing a bit?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, a bit of everything. Every week seems to throw something at me, putting bad or chipping bad. Mostly it's been the irons have not been good enough, and then obviously that puts pressure on everything else, as well. I've actually driven it okay this year, and that's probably the only positive, but outside of that, everything else has not been good enough, and then obviously that puts pressure on everything else, as well. I've actually driven it okay this year, and that's probably the only positive. But outside of that, everything else has been not as sharp as it needs to be.

Q. This far into a season, still plenty of season left, but do you put a little bit of pressure on yourself to see some results and see --

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, of course, there's no doubt, no doubt. It is still early. There's three majors with plenty of points still up for grabs, still plenty of elevated events and golf courses I've played well in the past.

I've still got to be a little bit optimistic, but there's no doubt about it, I need to start playing well and making up some points pretty quickly.

Q. You said "rubbish." When did it feel like your game was kind of starting to trend backwards?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Pretty much from halfway last year. Halfway last year, so just played poorly since June last year really.

I had a really -- what I thought was a really good off-season to get things in place and did hit some targets that we wanted to do in the off-season. But I think there's more to it than that, and it never translated on to the golf course. From a technical standpoint, just a little bit out of whack and just struggled.

Q. Is it mentally difficult when you have a great off-season, feel like things are going well and then it doesn't materialize immediately?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, totally. I felt like I had a reset last year at the end of the year, got married, had a honeymoon, and get away from the game for a little bit and then fully invested in it once you come back, and I had like five or six weeks before Sentry and then another three weeks after that to really get sharp. I felt like I did that. Had a decent enough start apart from a slow first round in Sentry and played well after that, but since then it's just not really been good enough, and obviously when you're not seeing results early doors, it's obviously very frustrating.

Q. So maybe you found a little something earlier this week. Is that just a swing thought or a tweak or --

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, I don't want to get into it, it's not fair, but there's a few things going on off the course. It's no one's particular fault, it's just the certain circumstances. It's been hard to kind of figure stuff out technically. I've been a little bit on my own recently, and again, it's absolutely no one's fault.

Got some extra help this week, and that's, I would say, given me a little bit more confidence in where I'm going, a bit more of a direction.

From there, hopefully just got to kick on and we'll see. First round solid today.

Q. Does it feel nice to come to a place like this that you've had success on in the past?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, I think so, yeah, definitely. Definitely think so. I think there's definitely a lot to be said for that when you go somewhere that you're so comfortable.

I was looking forward to this week. Even not playing well last week, I was just looking forward to being here, taking it all in and doing the usual stuff that we do here. So it definitely helps.

Q. Ryder Cup on the mind at all?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Not in the minute. Miles off it. Yeah, I've got no interest in that at the minute. That's not the plan.

The plan is to get myself playing well first and then obviously -- I think everyone could say the same thing. It takes care of itself, then it's on everyone's mind, but I'm a long way off it, so it's not entering my mind at the minute.

Q. What was the best shot you hit today?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Probably the chip-in on 2. I'll give myself that one. That was a good one. I don't know how close the microphone was, but me and my caddie had a bit of a commentary as it was rolling towards the hole, so it was quite funny actually.

Q. Like it's going to go in or --

MATT FITZPATRICK: Well, I played it. I said, I can't play it any better than that, Dan, and as it's rolling towards the hole, he's like, that's why it's going stiff, and before it went in, I said, no, you mean going in, and literally it just dropped in. So it was quite funny. We had a good laugh.