Being a major champion like his older brother would be nice, but as far as Alex Fitzpatrick is concerned winning the 2027 Ryder Cup together would be the pinnacle of any career.
“It’s definitely top of the list,” Alex said when asked Wednesday what it would mean to paired with Matt next year at Adare Manor.
Like any younger brother, Alex was taking the question second. Matt had answered first and in a similar fashion but with the comfort of someone who has already won two Ryder Cups — as well as the 2022 U.S. Open.
Reflecting on winning the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic together earlier this year, Matt said that it couldn’t get much better than playing in Ireland with his brother and giving Team Europe its third straight victory over the U.S.
“I’m looking to achieve a lot in the game, and I think that would be as good as it gets,” he said. “Winning a PGA Tour event together, that’s pretty high on the list but to be able to play Ryder Cup and to be able to have a chance at winning Ryder Cup together would be, would be pretty incredible.”
The brothers were on European captain Luke Donald’s scouting trip to County Limerick, Ireland, earlier this month. Alex was one of four possible rookies among the group of 16 players, along with Kristoffer Reitan, Eugenio Chacarra and Angel Ayora.
He told reporters at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where he and Matt are competing against each other this week, that he is “hungry” to be on the 2027 Ryder Cup team. Seeing Adare up close and personal and being around other players who had won, only increased that drive.
“It’s not often you get to be with some of the best players,” he said. “I had heard so many great things about Adare. I had seen photos of the golf course, but seeing it and being there was incredible.”
The younger Fitzpatrick, who won his first DP World Tour event a month prior to his triumph in New Orleans, added that he hopes that by continuing to approach the game the same way that he’s been doing in 2026 “leads to being at Adare.”
“That’s the one thing I want to do more than anything next year,” he said. “We’ll see.”
The Fitzpatrick family at the home of golf 💙#DunhillLinks pic.twitter.com/YQZhIFBLUA
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) September 30, 2026
Abu Dhabi and Dubai
While most of the brothers’ joint press conference focused on this week’s DP World Tour event and their family ambition to claim the Cup at Adare, Matt was asked about raising safety concerns with traveling to the United Arab Emirates for the Abu Dhabi Championship amid the ongoing Iran War.
Also in that trip would include the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
The older Fitzpatrick told reporters he was planning to play in both events, despite the regional conflict and becoming a new dad this summer.
“I’ve spoken to a few people over the last couple weeks, and they were very reassuring in what’s going on over there,” Matt Fitzpatrick said Wednesday. “Obviously five weeks, see where we are at but what they said was very, very reassuring and I think very easy for things to kind of get sort of twisted in terms of not necessarily what I said, and my beliefs were.”
“It’s a tournament that I love going to and obviously a tournament that I play very well at, and obviously I would be very disappointed to miss it, to be honest,” he added. “Kind of taking it week-by-week and just sort of seeing the other side of it.”
He has won four times this year — three times on the PGA Tour (including the Zurich with Alex) and last week’s Open de France on the DP World Tour, and was asked if that has shifted his perspective at all both on and off the course.
“It is nice to manage to achieve a lot of those wins and a lot of those great results. There’s definitely times, you know, you just forget about it and it’s easy to continue to the next one,” Fitzpatrick said. “But I’ve said before, sort of try to take it in a little bit more, some of these good results, and really try to enjoy them and make that a thing, I think is important. You never know when the next one is going to be. Hopefully it’s going to be this week. You have to take them when you can.”
