Matt Fitzpatrick Takes Indirect Swipe at Playing Partner’s Slow Pace of Play Following Valspar Championship Victory

A week after finishing as the runner-up at The Players Championship, Matt Fitzpatrick claimed his 3rd PGA Tour win by winning the Valspar Championship.

Matt Fitzpatrick Takes Indirect Swipe at Playing Partner’s Slow Pace of Play Following Valspar Championship Victory

Matt Fitzpatrick (Image via Sky Sports)

A week after losing The Players Championship, Matt Fitzpatrick emerged as the winner at the Valspar Championship. Following his 3rd win on the PGA Tour, the golfer took an indirect swipe at his playing partner’s slow pace of play during the final round.

The Englishman was paired up with Adrien Dumont de Chassart. After scores of 69, 71 and 67 in the first three rounds, the Belgian golfer was hoping for another positive round to finish inside the top-10.

He did not have the best of starts as he made a triple bogey on the first hole. With 7 pars and 1 birdie, he finished the front nine with a 2-over par score. Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick was on the move up with 8 pars and 1 birdie on the first 9 holes.

On the 11th hole, Dumont de Chassart had another slip-up as he made his 2nd triple bogey of the day. At this hole, he would take a long time to handle himself.

He would take around 3 minutes to hit his approach. As he slowed down a bit, Fitzpatrick would ask an official for help as he attempted to keep his group on pace.

NBC on-course commentator John Wood would describe the pace as “glacial.” Rules official Orlando Pope would later confirm that the tour had started unofficially, timing Dumont de Chassart and warning him about this. However, there was no major penalty regarding this.

Fitzpatrick would later go on to birdie the final hole to edge out David Lipsky by one shot to win the title. This turned out to be his 3rd PGA Tour win and his first on this circuit since April 2023, when he won the RBC Heritage.

Following his triumph, the former U.S. Open champion spoke about the slow play incident. While he did not mention Dumont de Chassart, he took an indirect swipe at him.

That was really frustrating. It was slow today. I felt like there was a lot of stop/start. When you’re not ready to play a golf shot it gets frustrating after a while. Particularly when you playing well yourself or you’re in contention or whatever it is. There’s definitely, you know, it definitely knocks you out of your rhythm.

Matt Fitzpatrick told the reporters

The slow pace of play has been a major issue on the PGA Tour for several years. Last year, there were several incidents where golfers took a long time to complete their rounds.

It is also not the first time Fitzpatrick has dealt with this problem. Following his victory at the 2023 RBC Heritage, he sounded off on this and claimed it was “truly appalling” and that no one was going to do anything about it.

Matt Fitzpatrick reaches career high OWGR ranking following Valspar Championship win

Matt Fitzpatrick has been on a roll in the past two weeks. Following his win at the Valspar Championship, he reached a career-high ranking in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).

Matt Fitzpatrick
Matt Fitzpatrick (Image via X/@MattFitz94)

Before The Players Championship, Fitzpatrick was ranked 24th in the OWGR. His runner-up finish in the signature event earned him 48 points in the OWGR.

This saw him jump 9 positions in the ranking and finish the day ranked 15th in the world. On Sunday, he received 48 points again as he won the Valspar Championship. He also earned 4 more points as a bonus for winning the tournament.

As a result of this, he made another huge leap on the OWGR. After this triumph, Fitzpatrick is now 6th in the OWGR, which is the highest rank he has reached in his golf career.

Around this time last year, the golfer was struggling with form. He would miss the cut at The Players Championship and the Valero Texas Open. At the Masters Tournament, he finished T40 with scores of 71. 73, 74 and 73 in his four rounds.

With the Masters Tournament around the corner, the 31-year-old would be hoping to keep his momentum going and have a strong showing in the first major event of the 2026 season.

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