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Matt Fitzpatrick played down the crowd reaction after he beat world number one Scottie Scheffler in a play-off for his second RBC Heritage title but the Ryder Cup winner could not resist a little dig at the pro-American gallery.
The Sheffield golfer won his second event in a month – becoming the third Englishman behind Justin Rose (twice), Sir Nick Faldo and Luke Donald to win multiple times in a PGA Tour season – after holing a 12-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole.
Once again Fitzpatrick won against the backdrop of chants of ‘USA, USA’, as he did against Cameron Young at last month’s Valspar Championship, and appeared to put his finger to his ear after securing victory.
“Americans are incredibly patriotic. I guess the only issue is they just have shorter memories because we won in October,” Fitzpatrick said of Europe’s Ryder Cup win at Bethpage last year.
“It didn’t get out of line in terms of no-one was shouting on backswings or anything like that, which was great. I’m all for it.
“You want golf to have an atmosphere in my opinion. I grew up watching football. I’m paid so much money to be out there in front of those crowds, having them chanting at you every week, it’s a great feeling.
Matt Fitzpatrick acknowledges the gallery after his putt on 18 (Reuters)
“However, there’s no better feeling than coming out on top against that. To describe it in my terms it’s kind of winning away against your biggest rival.
“Nothing to do with Scottie or the players. It’s the fans that have sort of spurred me on there.”
Fitzpatrick’s three-shot lead at the start of the day had been whittled down to one by playing partner Scheffler – runner-up at the Masters a week ago – by the final hole, where he flubbed a chip and bogeyed to drop into a play-off on 18-under after carding a 70 to the American’s 67.
Matt Fitzpatrick of England and Scottie Scheffler of the United States shake hands (Getty)
But a brilliant four-iron into the same green in the play-off was enough to see off Scheffler and move him up to third in the world rankings, the highest position of his career, and continue his improvement in form from 85th in the world last May.
“I feel like I can still improve. There’s areas that I want to get better at. I feel like I’m playing very well right now,” he added.