CROMWELL, Conn. — There’s nothing worse than being betrayed by your putter.
Matt Fitzpatrick experienced that three consecutive times — triple the pain (!) — to close out his first round at TPC River Highlands on Thursday.
Fitzpatrick set himself up for birdie putts inside 20 feet at Nos. 16, 17, and 18, but failed to convert all three.
He focused on the great start he had on the front nine (32) when speaking to the media after his round.
“If I can hopefully find some form coming into these, the final stretch, particularly in Europe with The Open Championship and then obviously the playoffs, it would be nice to end the season on a real high,” said Fitzpatrick, the Tour’s only three-time winner this season.
“Took advantage of the scoring holes,” he added. “Just felt like I did pretty much everything really, really solid today.”
He sits one shot off Eric Cole’s lead entering Friday’s second round of the Travelers Championship.
The 2022 U.S. Open champ is T-2 on the leaderboard with five others — Scottie Scheffler, Bud Cauley, Nico Echavarria, Kristoffer Reitan and Ben Griffin, who are also in the clubhouse with respective 64s.
“It’s something that I probably would have struggled with in the past I feel like,” Fitzpatrick said of his transition this week from the U.S. Open at Shinnecock last weekend. “But I think just the way my game’s changed, with how my approach play’s better now, it just gives me a bit more possibility of contending. I think just having that confidence in my approach play and as well as being able to hit the shots that I see is obviously the biggest key. So, I probably put it down to that”
He finished 4 over in the season’s third major — good for a solo 22nd (67-70-74-73).
“Struggled off the tee,” Fitzpatrick told reporters outside of Hartford on Thursday. “You got to give yourself a chance at making some scores. Not only a chance of making birdies, but just trying to make comfortable pars. I think for me that’s been, that was the big thing at the weekend that I struggled with. I just, I didn’t hit my driver very well and I feel like that that was kind of what held me back most of all.”
Despite showing frustration on the green over the final three holes at the Travelers, Fitzpatrick’s focus is on approach play.
“You got to give yourself a lot of opportunities and I felt like I did that,” he said. “If your approach play is good this week there’s obviously a lot of birdies to be made. You’re not hitting too much club in on a lot of holes. So, I think if you can take advantage of that, then that’s the important thing.”
