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In this video, 2022 US Open Champion Matt Fitpatrick plays a hole with Joe The Pro Ferguson caddying for him to unpack exactly how he goes about playing golf at the highest level to see what amateur golfers can learn from his strategic approach!
Matt Fitzpatrick explains how he plays golf, from the tee to the green, what he's thinking over the ball and what he writes in his yardage book.
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0:00
Today we are going to get in the minds of a major champion. I've got Matt Fitzpatrick here. Hello Matt
0:06
How are you? Very well, thank you. I don't know how well I'm going to be in a minute once I've lugged this bag up here
0:09
but we're going to see how you play your golf and how you strategize your way around your golf course
0:14
So today I'm going to be your new, improved, taller, better looking Billy Foster. That's what you told me off camera anyway
0:20
So talk me through this hole here and your approach. What the type of thing Billy would be saying to you and what you do to prepare for a hole like this
0:28
Yeah, so obviously this hole, pretty straightforward. The bunkers there, I think you told me earlier, were 3.15
0:33
so I'm not reaching that today. But yeah, we'd look at this hole and think
0:38
okay, well, where do we want to hit it? The bunker's obviously trouble here. We don't want to run out of that
0:42
So yeah, we'd hit it short of that and then play from there. So how much of your strategy is predetermined
0:48
from your practice rounds or even in the morning before you play when you get the pin sheets
0:53
and when you figure out the wind? Are you making your strategy then and sticking to it out
0:57
on the golf course or have you got like a flexible plan yeah i mean obviously we've got a flexible
1:01
plan you think you've always got to stay that way but you know we make our plan monday tuesday
1:05
wednesday if it's particularly if it's a golf course we've not seen before we'll go through
1:09
the holes as we play them and in practice rounds and we'll decide on you know what we're going to
1:13
do is it a hybrid here is it four iron is it driver do we take out the bunker or not it's
1:18
um you know there's a lot that goes into it so um from there we'll we'll decide on what we do
1:22
the night before obviously from then it depends on tournament situation as to whether you change
1:27
it or not so you might change that strategy tournament round depending on if you're chasing
1:31
a lead need a birdie need you know need to be play conservative just get it in the house whatever
1:36
it may be so it is pretty flexible right boss so i'm going to be caddy in for you i'm lugging this
1:40
monstrosity of a bag it's huge and heavy we've got 316 to that bunker on the right you told me
1:46
we're not going to go in it with driver so you're happy with driver yeah if you say so you're caddy
1:50
and you need to tell me. No, I'm happy with driving. Let's go with it. So, crikey, that's heavy
1:58
Once you've teed up, tell me the process you're going through. How do you aim
2:01
Are you someone who picks out a spot in front of the ball? No, I just, you know
2:06
know where I'm going. That's my target and kind of go from there, really
2:10
Obviously done a lot of practice before with alignment sticks to make sure your alignment's good
2:16
Yeah, and then you just obviously, you know, bank on your practice. I can see you're keen to get going here
2:20
One more. Are you someone who shapes the ball with the shape of a hole or against the wind or do
2:23
you have your stock shot and go with it? Stock. Yeah stock draw with off the tee So that what I do regardless Occasionally if the whole force is a shape then obviously I have to do that And so then I happy doing but it just easier to stick with what stock
2:41
Come on then boss, stock driver straight out of that marketplace please. I like it. Up the right half, we're in good shape. This is going to be easy
2:58
I think it just rolled in that bunker. Don't you worry about that man, it's not. This is going to be easy
3:05
Right, so we're off and away boss, that was a great tee shot. I'm happy with that, I think this is going to be easy
3:09
now we're walking you do an awful lot of walking so talk to me about the role of the golf shoe for
3:15
you how important that is and what you like about these sketches go golf blade shoes yeah the thing
3:20
the biggest thing for me with the with the blade is it's is the comfort you know the like i say
3:26
play 28 weeks a year four rounds ideally thursday to sunday practice rounds monday to wednesday
3:33
you're always on your feet you know whether it's playing golf whether it's in the gym
3:37
and you know these golf shoes just make a hell of a difference over the course of a year and
3:42
you know I've not had any soreness in my feet since I've moved with Skechers which is obviously
3:47
a huge deal and that's like one of the biggest things as to as to why I moved over to Skechers
3:53
in the first place and you know these shoes are excellent. Right so we are approaching that second
3:58
our second shot after that wonderful t-shirt and I've got the club yardage book here but
4:03
I've seen on tour your yardage books are a lot more detailed and you're somebody who does an
4:07
awful lot of writing in them aren't you so when I see you at the end of the hole and you've finished
4:11
out and you start writing stuff down in your planner what are you writing um a bit of everything
4:16
you know what my target is what club where the wind is uh how the ball's lying below my feet above
4:22
my feet um where the pin is all sorts of things and then obviously so you're writing about a
4:30
specific shot you've hit if that ball was above your feet below your feet because you want to know
4:34
what that did to the yardage or well it could be what it is the yardage or whether oh there's a
4:39
common theme here you've you know you're losing strokes with your seven iron well actually every
4:44
shot that you've lost strokes the ball's been below your feet right okay well i need to practice
4:48
below my feet because if you think about when you're playing golf the ground you're walking on
4:52
now how many golf shots do you hit where it's perfectly flat every time the answer is probably
4:57
10 you know it so why why are you practicing on lies that are flat all the time so when you get home you written all that information down how are you extrapolating that or where are you putting
5:09
that to make it useful for you um i have yeah i have a team of people so um my sponsor productivity
5:17
and uh eduardo molinari with arcos golf um you know we uh sort of work together to to sort of
5:26
get all that information, put it together and give us the feedback that we need in order to improve
5:32
Perfect. Well, that's interesting. Let's go and stiff this second shot, shall we? Right, Matt, we've arrived at the ball. You've already given me my first tailing off
5:40
for this running out into the semi. But little did you know, I think we've got a back pin
5:44
so I was trying to take a spin off there. I'm always thinking. Interesting. So what's the first thing you do when you get to the golf ball for a second shot
5:50
What's the first thing you look at? First thing is get yardage. Get yardage to the front and then obviously get yardage to the pin
5:55
so you know where it is from there you look at your book tour books have got a lot of detail
6:00
about the green so whether there's slope short long obviously bunker right left hazard whatever
6:05
it may be so then once you look at that you go okay i've got in this case we've got 188 188 we
6:13
want to land it because we know it's releasing six yards we don't want to land it 182 and from there
6:19
it's 182 is playing what yeah so we've got a bit of downwind yeah we might have five yards downwind
6:26
all of a sudden that's 177 maybe it's a bit colder or a bit warmer in this case it's a bit cooler so
6:32
it's probably playing 170 probably back to 180 there you go watch which 180 club 79 okay and when
6:40
do you factor in lie have you thought about that already have you subconsciously already come up and seen that i mean in this case semi it makes a negligible difference obviously if the fairway
6:49
it's not going to make a difference. Obviously, if it's in the rough, you're thinking something that might be a bit heavier
6:54
take more club, or you could be a flyer, drier rough, then obviously you've got to think about that
6:58
Okay, one thing I've seen a lot of pros do is mark off certain areas on the planner where you just simply can't miss it to certain pins
7:04
Is that something you'd look at now? You'd look at this pin and you'd have something marked on you
7:07
and you'd go, and just at the back of your mind, you'd be thinking we're veering slightly one side
7:11
Same deal. You know, for example, if there's a water hazard at the screen, you know, you aim further left away from the pin
7:17
there's a bunker and it's an easy up and down then you can go a little bit more aggressive so
7:21
obviously you've done your homework in the practice rounds and then you can take that into account
7:26
i'm a great caddy of course i've done my homework what do we say boss seven iron seven iron
7:29
wrong one that got a passive grip on it that illegal right that got a passive grip on it we do this one instead That the luck Talk me through your pre routine as you going with it as well
7:40
Two practice swings normally. And then, yeah, away I go. Cool. You're going to need to move a hair right, sir
7:55
Cameras aren't normally that close. right we've heard on the side of safety here boss i think i said into the left side to the green
8:08
but we can work it out from there right so we've hit that second shot i think we've missed a little bit left of target maybe that was
8:17
you can blame me for that one because i think i gave you the wrong line there as we're walking up are you starting to think about what might lay ahead are you looking at
8:25
slopes are you are you already getting a picture no no not really I mean there's there's it's more
8:30
like where's my ball how close is it before making a decision I feel like I get my best reads when
8:36
I'm fully focused and behind the ball obviously you know there's no point thinking about it now
8:40
I can't make a decision or certainly can't make a good decision from 50 yards away so for me it's
8:46
just kind of particularly if I'm on the green if I'm off the green you're obviously looking at the
8:50
contours for the chip and what that might you know what might you might be left with right
8:55
Matt, I've put you in a bad place here. I'm sorry. We've got hump. We've got downhill chip
8:58
What are you thinking? Yeah, this is short side. So that's a severe penalty in itself
9:06
Not a penalty for the caddy, is it? At this point, a hit and hope is a fine, yeah. He's absolutely played one
9:18
He's got me out of jail. And we are in there about six inches
9:22
That was an easy putt. We don't need a putt. good caddy well done well done knock off billy well that was a phenomenal cross-handed chip
9:32
talk us through why you've gone cross-handed what you think the benefits are just consistency i feel
9:37
like i know what's coming every time and and that's been the biggest thing for me um that's
9:42
the key thing in chipping you know what's coming each time you you know you hit your chip and uh
9:46
then you can predict what the outcome's going to be um so yeah it's been really helpful unorthodox were you nervous the first time you put it out in competition or not no no no no i've
9:54
I've been doing it as a training drill for a long time. Obviously, to take it into competition
10:00
it took a few more reps beforehand, but I'm used to it now
10:05
Great stuff. Thank you
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