Billy Foster recalls relief and elation as he toasts a major success at long last in Matt Fitzpatrick’s US Open triumph

“I picked out a tree that was three or four yards inside the left edge of the green. I said to him if you hit it on that tree there back left of the green and try and cut it you can probably still get it on the green.”

What happened next changed the course of Sheffield golfer Fitzpatrick’s life for ever, and for the 56-year-old from Bingley by his side, provided closure on a lifelong pursuit.

Eschewing the safe option to lay up, Fitzpatrick followed Foster’s line and attacked the green, striking a shot from a fairway trap that sailed over a treacherous bunker guarding the green and landed 20-feet above the pin.

Barring a birdie from playing partner Will Zalatoris, Fitzpatrick was two putts from the US Open title.

“What a golf shot he hit,” recalls Foster a few days later.

“It had been his weakness as well. His fairway bunker shots had been absolutely rubbish, he keeps hitting them fat. That was the last thing he needed under that pressure, but what an incredible golf shot he produced.”

Still, there was work to be done. Fitzpatrick and Zalatoris had traded blows in the final group all day long, both leading, both squandering the lead, both retaking it.

And after the Yorkshireman holed out for a round of 68, all they could do was watch as the young Californian tried to force a play-off and extend the tension by holing from 18 feet.

“These things never come easy,” laments Foster, who should know better than most.

For Foster has been caddying for nearly 40 years. He has stories of Seve Ballesteros hitting it over a swimming pool to save par in the early 90s, of carrying the bag for Tiger Woods, of Thomas Bjorn taking three to get out of a bunker to lose the Open in 2003, of Lee Westwood getting pipped to the biggest prizes more times than he cares to remember.

Foster has caddied on winning, losing and tieing Ryder Cup teams. He was the first man Darren Clarke hugged when he broke down at the K Club three weeks after the loss of his wife Heather.

But Foster had never tasted major championship success, and it was eating away at him.

“I just said to Fitz ‘get your mind ready for the play-off’,” as Zalatoris lined up his putt.

“And when he missed it there was a one-second delay in my head – you’ve got a major, I can’t believe it, that’s why I put my hat over my head, just bury my head and have a quiet little moment for myself.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fill up. The sheer elation of it, it was pure relief.”

In the immediate aftermath, Foster told Sky Sports it felt like he had got a gorilla off his back, let alone a monkey.

Forty-eight hours later, back at home in Bingley and in conversation with The Yorkshire Post, he was able to elaborate.

“It wasn’t like a case of ‘how was it? absolutely brilliant’ – it was just utter and sheer relief,” he says.

“That many heartbreaks, that many close shaves over the last two or three decades it was very relieving to finally get over the line.

“I’d been looking at it thinking if I’ve got three or four years left caddying so I’m down to my last dozen majors, am I ever going to win one? Probably not. Fitz would probably have won one when I retired, that’s what I was starting to think.”

Yet there was a growing sense that it was only a matter of time before the Hallamshire Golf Club member won a big one.

Foster had seen the evolution, was daring to believe.

The two had linked up before the season-ending DP World Tour Championship of 2018, just a day after Westwood and Foster split following a decade working together.

“At the time you’re thinking Lee’s career is on the slide a little bit, if you’re going to take another job who would you look at and if you had a handful of guys who you wouldn’t mind caddying for, Matt was one of the five,” remembers Foster.

“So when it came available it was a no-brainer. I’ll never forget sitting in a meeting with him and the question was asked by Pete Cowen I think, ‘what’s your goals?’ Fitz said: ‘I want to be world No 1’.

“I nearly spat my tea out, ‘you’re having a laugh aren’t you, no chance, you might get in the top 20’ – but now three and a half years later, why not?

“Fitz has transformed his game this year and turned into a different animal from the one I first worked with.

“He’s been working hard getting his swing speed up and he’s managed it by about six or seven mph which translates to 20 yards. Going from 280 yards to over 300 yards is huge – it’s the difference between a seven iron and a nine iron.

“He played with Dustin Johnson the first two rounds, a player renowned for being a big hitter and Fitz pummelled it past him by about 40 yards on the 15th one day.

“And his chipping – Seve would be turning in his grave watching him chip cackhanded – but that’s made him so consistent around the greens. He’s scrambling a lot better as well.

“On the PGA Tour he’s in the top 20 in every statistical category – not even Tiger Woods did that in his heyday, so that’s a testament to his all-round game.”

Fitzpatrick was in contention for the US PGA Championship at Southern Hills last month earlier fading on the final day.

But Foster sensed with the US Open at Brookline, where as a teenager Fitzpatrick had won the US Amateur, he would get another chance.

So it proved on a day of swinging emotions. “On 11, Zalatoris holed a 20-footer and Fitz has got it from a yard inside and he pushes it five-feet past and misses it coming back.

“Your heart sinks, you’ve gone from leading to bogeying 10 and 11 and being two behind. Is another one just about to slip through your fingers?

“Then Matt nails that putt on 13 we were back in it. I gave that putt the loudest ‘get in!’ – I was like Noel Whelan off BBC Radio Leeds,” quips the Leeds United supporter.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say my mind wandered a couple of times in that final round, picturing him winning. My eyes were filling up so I had to think ‘stop it, don’t get like that’.

“You can’t be thinking like that, you’ve got to concentrate on what you’re doing. You win these big golf tournaments by limiting your mistakes – everybody makes mistakes, I was just determined to really focus and make sure his head was clear on every shot, about what we’re doing, where your target is, what he sees, just don’t make any mistakes.

“I thought between us we worked incredibly well together. Fitz played brilliantly.”

So what now, now the gorilla is finally off Foster’s back?

“It makes you enjoy it, and in these big tournaments now there won’t be as much pressure,” he forecasts. “We’ve gone through the last two major tournaments competing, it’s becoming second nature. We won’t get as uptight, we can free-wheel it a little bit. Obviously he’s still going to be under pressure.

“Both of us wanted it so badly that maybe sometimes you might try too hard – but that’s gone.

“The scar tissue and the heartache of Thomas Bjorn leaving it in the bunker three times at Sandwich, Lee Westwood three-putting the last at Turnberry, Lee Westwood losing the Masters a couple of times. All that heartache seems to have washed away, I’ve got that major championship now.

“Fitz will get loads of confidence from this. You’ll be seeing this kid for many years, he’s that special.”

And what about Foster, how much longer will we see him for?

“I’ll give it another week at least,” he laughs. “I am finding it harder, the body is breaking down a bit, arthiritis and all that. I’d love to do it another two or three years and that’ll see me up to 60, but I don’t see myself doing it much after that; maybe a job share. I can’t really see much more than two or three years more but we’ll see.”

At least when Foster does retire he can do so having tasted major success at long last, his career complete.