Matt Fitzpatrick teed off at the Olympics for the first time, thanks to his No. 11 ranking on the International Golf Rankings. He opened with a 2-over 73 in the first round and shot a bogey-free 64 in the second. However, by the third round, he was struggling with his right thumb and shot 81, a whopping 10 over par. 

Following the conclusion of his third round, the Great Britain representative has now withdrawn from the Olympic Golf. The International Golf Federation announced his withdrawal and said, “Team Great Britain’s Matt Fitzpatrick, who entered this week with a preexisting right thumb strain, has withdrawn due to injury following the third round of the men’s Olympic golf competition,” as revealed on the PGA Tour.

Although Fitzpatrick hasn’t revealed anything about his thumb injury, it appears to be a lingering issue that led him to consider withdrawing. The issue must have been serious since it led to the end of the golfer’s quest for gold this year. This unfortunate news comes just two weeks before the start of the three-event FedEx Cup Playoffs. Could it be that the golfer is taking precautions? Only he knows the answer for now.

The golfer’s last victory was at the 2023 RBC Heritage. In 2024, he hasn’t won any tournaments, despite a T5 finish at the Memorial Tournament. In his last four starts, his best result is a T-36, with a tie for 64th at the U.S. Open and 50th at the Open Championship. Surprisingly, the reason for his struggle isn’t an injury.

Matt Fitzpatrick’s struggle with his driver

Fitzpatrick shared a story during the PLAYERS Championship this year about his driver. He shot 66 with six-under-par in his first round, credited his driver, and also said, “It felt a bit more like my old self.” When he was asked further about his struggles, the golfer shared a story and started with, “There’s a longer story to it, but yeah, just a mistake that no one knew about, and that’s what caused the issue,” as revealed on Golf Digest.

Surprisingly, it dates back to 2023, when the golfer’s team decided to conduct an experiment and put weights in the grip of his irons for three to four weeks, which proved successful. After the success, they decided to add 4 grams to his driver’s grip. Just a few weeks after the experiment, he told his team to remove the weight irons, and they took all of them out. However, both Matt Fitzpatrick and his team forgot about the 4 grams in his driver, and it stayed there for more than a year.

In February of this year, he remembered the extra weight when he wanted to regrip his original grip. While talking about it, he said, “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.” Although he won the 2023 RBC Heritage with that driver, issues with it troubled him until February this year and affected his overall swing.