Augusta (United States) (AFP) – Matt Fitzpatrick said his hot form means he has never been more confident entering the Masters, but the world number six will be keeping his expectations low when he tees off. The 31-year-old Englishman, who won last year’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, captured last month’s PGA Tour Valspar Championship a week after finishing second at the Players Championship.
“It’s definitely the most confident I’ve been,” Fitzpatrick said. “I wouldn’t say that means I’m going to go out there and play well. The key is obviously to have as low expectations as possible and as high a confidence as possible. This is definitely the best form I’ve been coming into this tournament. Just kind of trying to roll with it and enjoy that.”
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“Definitely a lot of momentum,” said the 2022 US Open champion. “The weird thing is winning and then having two weeks off and then you come in again. I think winning the week before is a bit more on a roll. You’ve got the same swing feels and whatnot.” In that two weeks off, there’s a few things that just felt like were maybe a little bit different,” he said. “It’s just managing that and making sure I’m on the right track.”
Fitzpatrick, who is making his 12th Masters start having made 10 consecutive cuts with a best finish of seventh in 2016, emphasized the importance of experience. “The experience is the biggest thing here. The more you can learn about the golf course, the better,” Fitzpatrick said. “There’s so much to learn on every different hole, particularly where to put the pins and where to miss around the greens, as well as just looking at the history of the event and what holes you can be a little bit more aggressive on and which holes you need to play smart.”
Fitzpatrick spoke to his psychologist ahead of the Masters, working on the balance between confidence and overconfidence. “It just goes back to the expectation standpoint,” he said. “It’s taking the confidence from that, that things have improved so much from where they were last year, but as well as having those expectations you can’t have the high expectations. I’m playing really well, but golf is golf. It can change quickly or it can continue for how it is.”
“Every year I feel like I’m a completely different player to the one before,” said Fitzpatrick.
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