THE 153RD OPEN

July 17, 2025

Matt Fitzpatrick

Mixed Zone

Q. Matt, congratulations, share of the lead as we speak. What did you do particularly well today?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I just felt like I did everything well. Just drove it well, approach play was good, and chipped and putted well. It was just an all around good day.

Q. How challenging was it when the rain came in?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Obviously made it more difficult. It was probably more annoying than anything. Obviously the gusts were changing and the wind was kind of dying when the rain came. Yeah, for the most part, I thought it was pretty consistent out there and obviously got around well.

Q. A great atmosphere there as well with the Irish fans? They really stuck with everybody.

MATT FITZPATRICK: Totally. This tournament always has the best fans obviously, even more so probably over here as well. They just understand golf so well, and good shots are rewarded with lots of claps. So that was a good thing.

Q. Would you say this is one of the absolute best courses on The Open schedule?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, for sure. I think this place is fantastic. I think I've been lucky enough to play multiple Open venues now over the course of my career. There's a couple that haven't been played for a while that I absolutely love as well. So it would be nice to go back to those two. I definitely think this is up there.

Q. Talk us through 16.

MATT FITZPATRICK: A bit of luck obviously. Sometimes you need that. You need that. I thought I could play a bit aggressive after watching Foxy and Hideki leave them a bit short. Obviously it just came out a little bit harder than I anticipated and on the perfect line.

Q. With your Open record, your previous best finishes here, coming back here were you aware of that?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I knew that, yeah. I don't -- The Open venues haven't necessarily been great to me. I've not necessarily been playing great when I've come here either. Yeah, I feel like I was -- I like this golf course. I think it's a very fair test, I think. It rewards good golf shots. I think sometimes links doesn't do that to you, and there's plenty of courses that we play or I've played at links golf that don't necessarily do that. But I think this is a fantastic golf course.

Q. Coming in on a bit of form as well?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Yeah, obviously been playing well recently.

Q. On the kind of climb back to form recently, can you just describe what that's been like and what tweaks or adjustments you've made to your game to get there?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Obviously I felt like it was a pretty low point. For me, it's kind of like just change my technique with my irons. I got to understand my tendencies a lot better to understand what I need to do to fix that. Kind of unfortunate circumstances in a way -- well, very unfortunate circumstances really, but started working with Mark Blackburn, and he's given me a lot of time. I feel like just a bit of change of information has made me understand myself a little bit better.

From there, I feel like I've just had more consistency, and from there, from consistency, you can kind of build confidence and keep calm.

Q. What was the low point?

MATT FITZPATRICK: THE PLAYERS this year. Yeah, THE PLAYERS this year, it was really bad, and even Valero, kind of a couple weeks later, I couldn't find the face with the ball. It was just not good.

Q. You're quite an analytical player. When you're trying to figure out your game, does that make it easier to get back to a good place or more difficult because you're always tweaking?

MATT FITZPATRICK: In a way, it kind of makes it easier because I know what I need to do. During the whole lull, like my driving had actually improved this year compared to last year, so that was fine, but putting and chipping were off. You could argue I probably spent a bit too much time looking for my game rather than working on that.

I didn't feel like that part of it was far away, and I wasn't necessarily worrying about that. It was just the approach play that I know needed massive improvement.

Q. Had you ever been in position like you were at THE PLAYERS?

MATT FITZPATRICK: No, that's the lowest I've been, I felt, in my career. Statistically it could be the worst, as well, run that I've played as well. Yeah, I just didn't feel good or know where it was going.

Q. What was the turning point?

MATT FITZPATRICK: RBC. Yeah, RBC, that's when I saw Mark for the first time, and kind of with advice from my trainers Andrew and Luke, it was on how like my body is, like I have really long arms, so that's got to be factored in in what we're working on.

At that point, kind of everything changed, with my approach play anyway.

Q. You've made a lot of changes off the course in the last year or so. Do you feel the benefits are coming from that, now that you've had to make those changes?

MATT FITZPATRICK: I wouldn't necessarily say -- obviously it's a hard one. My team has changed a lot since 2022. There's obviously varying reasons for that. I have obviously done that because I believe it's in the best interest of myself to get better. I feel like that's the direction I needed to go in to improve my game and whatever I expect of the changes.

It's easy to sit here and say a few good rounds and that's why, but there's always more to it than that. I just feel like it's definitely helped me, I feel like. It definitely helps me a lot. I wouldn't say -- I'm not putting it all down to, well, yeah, I changed my team and that's why. It's a combination of everything, and it's also a team effort as well. So a bit of both.

Q. Why do you think you haven't had success in this major?

MATT FITZPATRICK: Honestly I don't really know. I wouldn't say particularly -- I wouldn't say I particularly enjoy playing links golf, like I don't feel like -- it's just a grind all the time, isn't it? I like a grind, but sometimes it's a grind with low scoring, and that's what I find difficult. I like hitting it to 30 feet and making a par and it's a great par; you know what I mean?

I think here, if you look at previous, I was looking winning score here, Shane was obviously six ahead, but 12-under would have gotten you top 5 maybe. For me I don't necessarily see links golf as like, oh, yeah, this is super easy. I can breeze round in 4-under. I shot 4-under today, holed an eagle putt, chipped in, and I still feel like it was a grind out there.

I don't know if it's just the way I see the game might be differently, but I feel like I've got the shots to play well. I hit it as low as anyone out here, so it should stay out of the wind. But I just don't think it's necessarily as easy as some of these guys make it look.