Matt Fitzpatrick is a numbers man. Data points and metrics – right up his street. He trusts them and obeys their teachings, but there are some digits he doesn’t like.
Those would be the figures that this son of a bank manager believes are telling fibs. That they are guilty of false accounting. And it’s all a bit awkward, because the Ryder Cup is here and his record in such a unique setting is bleak.
It shows that he has contested eight matches across three editions and has a single point to his name. Of those eight, he has lost seven. Of 119 golfers who have played at least five rubbers since 1979, when continental Europe was added to Britain and Ireland, Fitzpatrick’s winning rate of 12.5 per cent ranks 119th. Dead last.
It’s right there on his go-to website for these things, Data Golf. Same as the slump that saw the winner of the US Open three years ago nosedive from the world’s top 10 in March 2024 to 85th in May 2025. We know the latter corrected itself through an excellent, resurgent summer – he’s back up to 29th now – but that Ryder Cup record is still throwing itself off the bottom of a graph.
So what did Europe captain Luke Donald see beneath the numbers when making his picks for Bethpage? What are they hiding? Fitzpatrick, 31, wishes to make his own case.
‘There’s a lot to it,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘It’s pretty disappointing, right?’
Of the 119 golfers who have played at least five Ryder Cup rubbers since 1979, Matt Fitzpatrick’s winning rate of 12.5 per cent ranks dead last
But Fitzpatrick proved he deliver under pressure in winning the 2022 US Open, beating out Scottie Scheffler to claim his first major
Fitzpatrick arrives at Team Europe’s Garden City Hotel base in New York with his wife Katherine on Monday
He starts with an admission about his debut nine years ago, when he secured automatic qualification via a now-defunct points system for Darren Clarke’s team away at Hazeltine.
He was benched for three of the four sessions, and was well beaten alongside Henrik Stenson by a fast-rising Brooks Koepka and Brandt Snedeker in the foursomes before being crushed in singles by the 2015 Open champion Zach Johnson.
‘In 2016 I wasn’t ready,’ Fitzpatrick admits. ‘I’d just turned 22, been a pro for two years, and I’d not done enough in the US to show anything. My confidence wasn’t high against the best players. I qualified on the European points list and that’s not my fault. When I talk about my record, 2016 is one I like to blank out.’
But what about 2021? That was also away, this time in a harrowing rout at Whistling Straits under the captaincy of Padraig Harrington, and it was no better, right? He and Lee Westwood never made it past the 17th hole in two foursomes matches and then Fitzpatrick lost to Daniel Berger on the Sunday.
‘In 2021, I was going to play with Viktor (Hovland) in the foursomes, and our balls didn’t match up, and so I ended up playing with Lee Westwood,’ says Fitzpatrick. ‘And you know, I felt like we played well. Then on the Sunday I had seven or eight birdies and lost on the last against Daniel Berger, so I think that’s the way matchplay is.
‘You can play really, really well and still lose, and someone could play poorly and win. I think the record doesn’t necessarily always do it justice for how you know you are as a player.
‘Since 2021, I’d like to think I’ve proved myself as a top player – winning a major and on the PGA Tour. Obviously everyone is looking at the record, but this is my fourth Cup as well and they don’t just give them out. There’s something to be said for that.’
If Fitzpatrick sounds defensive, it’s because the numbers make it that way. In Rome in 2023, he took only one point from three matches, and inevitably the solitary win was viewed through the prism of his playing partner – Rory McIlroy.
Fitzpatrick made his Ryder Cup bow aged just 22 in 2016 but he and Henrik Stenson were thrashed by Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka in the foursomes
Fitzpatrick went pointless on his tournament debut, after also losing to Zach Johnson in the singles
What may have been forgotten is that their fourballs trouncing of Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele came after Fitzpatrick rattled off five birdies and an eagle in the first six holes. McIlroy spent most of the front nine applauding.
‘He always likes to remind everybody he birdied the seventh, which always makes me laugh,’ says Fitzpatrick. ‘Obviously I want to have that feeling again, of being in the zone like I was there. You feel like you’re untouchable and that you can’t miss. But golf’s funny like that. If I think back to this time last year, you can feel like you’re never going to play well again. It’s a hard sport.’
And yet it’s also one where outlooks can turn on a good week. For Fitzpatrick, it remains to be seen if he can justify the gamble of a captain’s pick in New York, but the optimism comes from how sharply he has corrected the first sustained slump of his career on tour.
Since making the dramatic decisions to replace his caddie and coach in the spring, he has risen quickly – an eighth-placed finish at the PGA Championship in May has been followed by seven top-10s in 12 starts, including fourth at The Open. After his rankings bump, he is markedly different in mood to the guy who, just three months ago, couldn’t bring himself to discuss Ryder Cup qualification.
‘It was the hardest time of my career,’ he says. ‘Without sounding arrogant as such, I wouldn’t say I was worried about not being picked, but at the same time, I knew I had to play much better. Fortunately I did.
‘As you know, I’m very analytical and the website I always look at is Data Golf. There’s a line graph on there that was just going down and down for 18 months.
‘I think the hardest part was knowing that you’ve had good results in the past, and then your confidence just starts to fall away with results, you don’t know which direction the ball is going to go, and every week is a battle, but it’s coming around. I was really pleased with the summer.’
And no doubt Donald was relieved – Cup experience was one of his main criteria for this assignment to the Bethpage bearpit.
The 31-year-old finally picked up his first Ryder Cup point in 2023, sealing a fourballs win over Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele with Rory McIlroy
Fitzpatrick, seen here playing in the Omega European Masters in August, has soared up the world rankings after an impressive summer
European captain Luke Donald (second right) will be able to call on experienced players in the Bethpage bearpit
To run through the teams is to see an evenly-matched set of golfers from the US and Europe, albeit with the latter fighting against the great weight of home advantage.
It will be a big ask for Donald to orchestrate a win, though Sir Nick Faldo recently told Daily Mail Sport that the US have less fear factor and star power compared to other editions. Fitzpatrick disagrees.
‘I wouldn’t say so,’ he says. ‘There’s still Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele. Scottie Scheffler is OK as well! Their team is so strong and I’m sure the stats will tell you that their team is stronger than ours on paper. But, there’s the age-old adage that games aren’t won on paper.’
For a couple of reasons, Fitzpatrick will be going against his better nature in hoping that latter point holds true.
