Matt Fitzpatrick sets sights on Nick Faldo’s majors record

The 27-year-old from Sheffield became only the second male golfer to win a US Amateur and the US Open at the same course when he held off American pair Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler to win by a stroke.

He also claimed the added distinction of being just the third Englishman this century to win a major championship, alongside Justin Rose and his fellow Sheffielder Danny Willett.

Now with the bit between his teeth, he wants to hunt down Nick Faldo, the most successful English player with six.

“That’s the number that we all agreed on,” said Fitzpatrick. “I’ve got a bit of a way to go, but it’s a good start.

“Definitely you want to go win more now, there’s no doubt about that. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. I’m not trying to change things.

“I’ll probably have a sit-down meeting with everyone and just try and make the right decisions going forward. It’s easy to still go off track. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing, and hopefully more will come. I’m delighted with one so far.”

Fitzpatrick revealed that after watching Bryson DeChambeau over-power the course on his way to the 2020 US Open title, he sought to add more power to his own game.

“Since 2020 I spent a lot of time working with Mike Walker, my coach, and bio-mechanist Sasho Mackenzie,” said Fitzpatrick, who outdrove Dustin Johnson over the first two days.

“He gave me this speed stick called The Stack. I’ve been doing that religiously week in, week out and it’s worked wonders.

“I feel like maybe three, four years ago if I was in this position, playing with Will (Zalatoris) in the final group, I’d be concerned that I’m going to be 15, 20 behind him. But I felt comfortable all day that I was going to be past him.”

The next major is the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews.

“I love playing St Andrews,” said the new US Open champion. “Now I’m a bomber I’ll probably be driving most of the greens!”

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