HOYLAKE, England — Matthew Fitzpatrick was playing a leisurely round at Manasquan River Country Club in Brielle, N.J., earlier this month and he couldn’t concentrate on a single shot of his own.
All the 28-year-old from England could think about while playing with his girlfriend, Katherine Gaal, a native of Bay Head, N.J., and a member at Manasquan, was what his younger brother, Alex, was doing across the Atlantic Ocean.
The 2022 U.S. Open champion, who was the low amateur at the British Open 10 years ago, couldn’t take his eyes off his cell phone while checking on the scoring at the British Open qualifying tournament at Lancashire Golf Club in England.
Alex, four years younger than Matthew, was trying to qualify for this week’s Open at Royal Liverpool.
“I was buzzing,’’ Matthew recalled Monday. “I was playing golf and I was just refreshing the scores constantly. It was taking a while to update. My girlfriend was just literally like, ‘Put it down. It’ll load in a minute.’ I was just constantly refreshing, texting my mom, [asking], ‘What’s he doing, where is he hitting it?’ ’’
Alex Fitzpatrick, who turned pro earlier this year and is playing on the Challenge Tour (the DP World Tour’s feeder tour), hit enough good shots to qualify for the Open.
In that qualifier, Alex Fitzpatrick beat out former major champions and European Ryder Cup heroes Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell for a spot into the field this week.
He delivered a hole-out from his knees out of a bunker in that qualifier that went viral on social media.
“It’s amazing, if you would’ve said to me 10 years ago when I played at Muirfield [as an amateur], ‘You’d play the Open in 2023, you’d have won a major and your brother would be playing in one,’ I think we’d both be like, ‘What?’ ’’ Matthew said. “He was only 14 10 years ago. It’s kind of a lot to take in, really.’’
In the spring, the two brothers played together in the PGA Tour’s team event, the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, where they finished tied for 19th.
This will be quite different.
Matthew has offered similar advice to Alex that others gave him when he first began playing major championships.
“I think my biggest thing is he came last week to play 18, which I think was helpful, see the golf course, no stress, no rush,’’ Matthew said. “I just told him take these next few days easy, nine holes each day. I remember speaking to my coach about what to do at my first Open back in 2013, and that’s what he stressed — don’t tire yourself out.’’
Matthew said he’s still dealing with the pinch-yourself-moment of having his younger brother, who caddied for him at age 14 when he won the 2013 U.S. Amateur, playing in the same major championship with him.
“It’s my little brother,’’ he said. “I’ve almost wanted to give Francesco and Edoardo [Molinari] a call and ask them what it’s like, what’s the dynamic like between you? Is it weird?
“People ask, ‘What would you do if you were in the final group on Sunday? ‘And I said, ‘Well, that would be kind of my worst nightmare, to be honest.’ ’’
Matthew recalled feeling badly for Alex over the years because of all the attention being on him as he continued to pile up accomplishments on the golf course.
“I remember however many years when I first got on Tour, Alex was still at my golf club, Hallamshire, and members would come up to him all the time, ‘How’s Matt doing? Where’s Matt?’ Not, ‘How are you doing? How’s your game?’ ’’ Matthew said. “It was just always asking about me. I completely understand how it feels now because it’s the other way around. Literally the majority of the questions are, ‘How’s Alex?’
“I totally get how it is, and I’m sure for him growing up it was probably very annoying. It’s hard for him to kind of have his own identity and have his own game. People kind of putting him into, ‘Oh, he’s got to be like his brother’ and stuff, when actually we are polar opposites.’’
When Alex was asked if the Open would allow him to emerge from his brother’s shadow, he said recently, “Probably not, but I’m OK with that to be honest. He can’t help being U.S. Open champion [and] I’d never wish him not to be. I couldn’t be prouder.’’
Alex then conceded, “It’s a very difficult topic. It’s something I’ve dealt with from being young. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. At times it is pretty hard. You have tweets being sent to you with random messages like ‘You’re not as good as your brother.’
“I love my brother to death and obviously he is a fantastic golfer and I’d never change it for the world, but people expect you to do a lot of things and I think it is hard sometimes to live up to that. But you make your own path and I’m on the way to doing that.”
