‘Almost Had a Heart Attack’: Matt Fitzpatrick Shares the Utterly Bizarre Backstory Behind His Driver Struggles

Moderate, to say the least, but that has been the start of the 2024 season for Matt Fitzpatrick. Last year, the English golfer won twice as he won the RBC Heritage and the 2023 Dunhill Links Championship on the DP World Tour. However, as of late, Fitzpatrick has been struggling to score a similar result this year.

He has played seven events out of which he missed three cuts and carded two top-15 finishes. The latest one was at the WM Phoenix Open. That week, Fitzpatrick saw a change in his drive because, before playing at the TPC Scottsdale, Fitzpatrick remembered a crucial detail he had forgotten for a year. The 29-year-old pro had adjusted his driver for testing last year and never recalled to remove it until this February.

Titleist puts an end to Matt Fitzpatrick’s driver struggles

After playing the first round at THE PLAYERS Championship, Matt Fitzpatrick shot 6 under 66 to tie for the fourth spot. This has been a significant change from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, where he missed the cut. But how did a change like this occur? Fitzpatrick narrated at the post-round presser that it had been an issue with his driver.

What happened was last year, as Fitzpatrick detailed, “We were doing some testing to match up — I put weight in the grip of my irons, and it was successful for three, four weeks, and we thought, okay, well, let’s match it up with the driver, because I felt there was a bit of an indifference there.” Later in March, the two-time PGA Tour winner removed the weights from his irons but forgot about his driver.

Interestingly, the credit for removing the weight should be given to the team at Titleist. Why? Because they were the ones who notified Fitzpatrick of the 4-gram weight in his driver. Here’s what happened. The Englishman sent the driver back to his home country because the grip had worn out and needed a re-grip. However, the person who re-gripped the driver put too much tape on, and the driver bulked up the length. Fitzpatrick then took the driver to his bag sponsor. He said, “I took it to Titleist, they regripped it for me and they’re like, oh, you know there’s a weight in there, and I almost had a heart attack.”

This happened before he started his play at the WM Phoenix Open. Fitzpatrick said he “took it out week of Phoenix, and yeah, it’s been — driver has felt completely different.” And the result was apparent as well, as he scored T15 at the People’s Open. The weight was supposed to give “More face rotation, more kick from the shift, so left is the popular miss,” said Fitzpatrick. A small mistake had caused Fitzpatrick to have a bit of a disadvantage. Though now resolved, did anyone from his team experience any repercussions?

Did anyone from Matt Fitzpatrick’s team receive the blunt? 

A series of questions followed after the revelation of the reason behind the bizarre driver weight struggle during the press conference at the TPC Sawgrass. The reporters were curious about what happened next. One asked Matt Fitzpatrick if, after finding out, anyone from his team got fired because they had forgotten and he had to struggle because of it.

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The 29-year-old pro replied, “Absolutely not, no. It’s just as much my fault as everyone else, so no chance.” Luckily, Fitzpatrick understood his team. The unwanted driver struggles were weighing down Fitzpatrick’s game on the course. Now with his old driver by his side, will the 29-year-old be able to make the cut and maybe win at the PLAYERS Stadium Course?

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