Matthew Fitzpatrick recovers from bulging disc ahead of Masters
, 2023-04-05 14:31:31,
AUGUSTA, Ga. — All the data in the world could not help Matthew Fitzpatrick on this one.
The Jupiter resident famously known for tracking every shot he hits (which, by the way, was 6,053 in tournament play 2022), could not figure out the sensation he started experiencing in late January. First coming off his shoulder and then into his chest.
It started before the Pebble Beach Pro-Am and continued into the Genesis Invitational. The pain put a halt Fitzpatrick’s work in the gym.
Finally, Fitzpatrick’s trainer suggested a visit to a Los Angeles-area hospital during Genesis week. An MRI revealed a slight bulging disk.
“I wasn’t able to continue my speed work that was being done religiously,” Fitzpatrick said Tuesday. “The timing of it put me straight behind the 8-ball. All of a sudden, the work I had done in the off-season just became non-existent.
“I wasn’t moving as well as I needed to to swing it as well as I needed to, and it’s just been kind of compounding of errors, really.”
This came during a stretch in which Fitzpatrick missed four cuts in six starts, equaling the number of missed cuts in his previous 24 events. And following the best year of his career.
Fitzpatrick’s first PGA Tour victory was his first major win, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, which helped him reach the top 10 in the World Golf Rankings for the first time. He now is No. 15.
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Among Palm Beach County golf royalty
Fitzpatrick, 28, may not be among the higher profile golfers who have made Palm Beach County home, but that does not mean his game does not fit in with the golf royalty with whom he shares a zip code.
In the last year Fitzpatrick, who won the U.S. Amateur at 18 and was on a Ryder Cup team before he turned 22, has gone from one of the UK’s best golfers to one of the best golfers in the world. While the U.S. Open is his lone win on the PGA Tour, he had eight wins on the European Tour.
But that progress was stalled by the injury and Fitzpatrick is trying to build back his swing and body to where it was last year.
“It’s very, very frustrating,” said Fitzpatrick, who plays out of the Dye Preserve in Jupiter. “It’s only been the last week or two, really, that stretch where I’ve been able to do normal stuff again and train normally.
“I think that’s been a big factor in me … like I say,…
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