Following his opening round performance at The Masters, Matt Fitzpatrick was perplexed by some of the clubs in his bag that didn’t perform to his expectations.
Fitzpatrick opened with a round of one under 71, but while he had five birdies, his card also featured several blemishes, the most notable of which was finishing with consecutive bogeys on 17 and 18.
Fitzpatrick is well known for approaching every shot with a great deal of analysis. He has been keeping handwritten records of every shot he makes for a number of years.
But even with his careful planning, there are still surprises in golf, as Fitzpatrick discovered when his short irons failed to perform as expected in the first round.
After his round, the Englishman told the reporters that his scoring irons were just not spinning.
He conveyed to reporters:
“My short irons simply refuse to spin. As if they’d rather not spin. You receive some that I hit, and the ball continues to go forever.Really, I have no idea what to do.”
Fitzpatrick’s strokes gained approach currently places him in the middle of the pack on the PGA Tour, but during the first round at Augusta National, his stats drastically declined.
This season, his average green-in-regulation percentage on the PGA Tour is 68.5%; but, however, he only managed to find the putting surface in regulation ten times, dropping his average to 56%.
Fitzpatrick, Matthew
On the eighteenth hole, he produced the least amount of spin possible.
Fitzpatrick had a perfect drive, so his only remaining iron was a short iron into the green.
Fitzpatrick’s shot was relatively easy because of the pin cut at the back right, but it still airmailed the green by ten to fifteen yards and landed in the spectators’ section behind the green.
Fitzpatrick now utilizes a Titleist Pro V1x golf ball and PING Blueprint S irons, but he has no association with either brand.
Although it would be simple to point fingers at the gear, Fitzpatrick’s irons and ball are in the hands of many other players on the field.
