AVONDALE, La. – Alex Fitzpatrick’s quest for his first PGA Tour card reached a successful yet nerve-racking conclusion Sunday evening at TPC Louisiana, where Fitzpatrick teamed with his older brother, Matt, who like Alex was coming off a victory in his last start, to capture the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with an emotional one-shot triumph.
For the second straight Sunday, following last Sunday’s iconic 4-iron into Harbour Town’s 18th to beat Scottie Scheffler in a playoff, Matt Fitzpatrick delivered on the final hole. After a back nine filled with frustrating miss-hits, Matt’s 35-yard bunker shot landed left of the pin, spun right and stopped on a dime, leaving Alex with the winning putt from inches.
“I got to the ball, and the lie was unbelievable,” Matt said. “I couldn’t have placed it on a better tee. ... I played it to perfection. What more can I say?”
When the ball disappeared, Alex crouched down, buried his head in his hands and fought to hold onto his emotions.
“I thought I was going to miss the putt,” Alex said. “Stood over it, even though it was so short, I couldn’t feel my hands, couldn’t feel my legs, couldn’t feel anything. Yeah, it’s just been a whirlwind. At some point it will set in, but it’s a pretty life-changing thing.”
It wasn’t long ago that Alex was just trying to hold onto his DP World Tour card.
Alex, 27, had settled in nicely on the European circuit after graduating from Wake Forest in 2022, ascending nearly inside the top 100 in the world rankings. But by early last October, he’d slipped outside the top 280 on the backs of six missed cuts in nine starts. That’s when Alex decided on a change of instructors, leaving Mark Blackburn for Mike Walker, who coincidentally had been Matt’s longtime swing coach dating to Matt’s junior-golf days. (Matt switched to Blackburn after the 2025 Masters, an amicable move as Walker was dealing with a personal matter at the time.)
“It’s just tricky, you know, when you’re not playing well, and you feel like things need to change,” Alex said. “Last year, it got kind of too close for liking where there were only about three or four events left in the year, so I felt like I needed to do something just to keep my card. Luckily, I made it. It was a good change. Mike has done a really good job with my driver and the rest of my game as well to where I feel in control of my driving, and I feel like I hit a lot of fairways now, and that gives me the opportunity to hit a lot of greens. I felt like I’ve put a lot of work in, and happy that it’s starting to show.”
Under Walker’s guidance, Alex has seen some notable ball-striking strides, jumping from 133rd in driving accuracy last year on the DPWT to 22nd so far this season, while also going from 96th to sixth in greens in regulation. He won last month’s Hero Indian Open, his first DPWT title, and currently sits seventh in the Race to Dubai. The top 10 players not already with status earn PGA Tour cards for 2027; Alex has now expedited that process.
With the win, Alex receives not only a two-year winner’s exemption on the PGA Tour but also spots in next month’s PGA Championship, next year’s Players Championship and the remaining four signature events this season, two of which are planned for each of the next two weeks, the Cadillac Championship and Truist Championship. Alex also is projected to crack the top 100 in the world come Monday morning.
“I’ve got a flight for Turkey tonight,” Alex said. He’ll be canceling it.
Matt says he’s remained close with Walker and thankful that the Pete Cowen disciple has been able to help Alex discover “the best golf he’s played in his life,” Matt added of the past few months. Matt, the world No. 3 who keeps closing the gap on Nos. 1 and 2, Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, is inarguably enjoying the same kind of heater.
Alex and Matt, who owns four wins this year (two on each tour, PGA and DP World), kickstarted their week in Friday foursomes, where they turned in a 7-under 65, the best round of the day by two shots. They followed with a tournament-record 57 in Saturday four-balls, after which Matt noted, “I felt like we were almost one player in a way. I was helping him on the greens. You know, he was giving me the opportunity to be aggressive into the pins and stuff. Yeah, it was just a hell of a day.”
Following his win last week at the RBC Heritage, Matt Fitzpatrick becomes the first player to win back-to-back weeks since Scottie Scheffler (2024 Masters Tournament/2024 RBC Heritage).
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) April 26, 2026
He is the first to win back-to-back starts since Scheffler at the 2025 Procore Championship…
So was Sunday, just for different reasons. When Matt went to bed Saturday night, it felt like any other time he’d slept on a lead. But it ended up being anything but.
The Fitzpatricks entered Sunday’s final round at a record 30 under and four shots clear of their next closest challengers, Davis Thompson and Austin Eckroat, who birdied the first hole to trim their deficit by a shot. The brothers remained steady, birdieing Nos. 2 and 8 to get to 32 under, but after turning with the same lead in which they started the day, the Fitzpatricks saw their advantage quickly cut in half as Kristoffer Reitan canned a 45-footer for eagle at the par-5 11th, three holes after he holed out for eagle from 135 yards.
That’s when things got way too interesting. While the Norwegians bogeyed No. 13 to again fall four back, the Fitzpatricks ran into some trouble at the par-4 12th. Matt fanned his drive right and next to a tree, forcing Alex to try and punch out, only to fail and hit a different tree. They would ultimately card double bogey to revert to 31 under, then only a shot ahead of Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer, the latter a conditional member on the PGA Tour.
Trouble continued at the next, as Matt flied a wedge over the par-4 13th green, but Alex hit a clutch flop to set up the crucial par save. Matt missed long and left once again at the par-3 14th, though this time Alex couldn’t splash out close from the sand; Matt would miss the 24-footer for par, and the Fitzpatricks’ lead had suddenly disappeared with the brothers now tied atop the leaderboard with Smalley and Springer.
“I didn’t expect to be as nervous as I was,” Matt said. "... We were really comfortable with what we were doing. For the first 11 holes, we were on a similar trajectory. I was feeling good at that point. Then literally, yeah, terrible tee shot on 12, terrible second shot on 13, terrible tee shot on 14. I kind of felt like what the hell is going on here? I felt like I lost my swing.
“Then all of a sudden, I’m, like, all right, I am feeling it now. I don’t want to throw this away. We’ve done such great work to be in this position. You know, I just felt that we needed to just give ourselves a chance.”
Added Alex: “He’s one of the best players in the world. For me, it was like it’s only a matter of time before he’ll come back. It was just about trying to keep him involved.”
Alex’s drive at the par-4 15th nearly plugged into the grassy lip of the left fairway bunker, leaving Matt an awkward approach, which he advanced just left of the green. Alex chipped up to 8 feet, and Matt answered with a par save that produced simultaneous fist pumps.
In search of their first TOUR victory, Kristoffer Reitan/Kris Ventura and Alex Smalley/Hayden Springer all finish runner up at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for career-best finishes. Only Smalley had finished second before (2022 Corales Puntacana Championship, 2023 John Deere…
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) April 26, 2026
Moments earlier, Reitan drew a long-iron 230 yards to 7 feet at the par-5 finishing hole, which Ventura cleaned up their third eagle of the round to give them the clubhouse lead at 30 under. Moments later, Springer got too aggressive on his long birdie try at the par-3 17th, running it almost 10 feet by. Smalley missed the comebacker, as they dropped back to 29 under.
When Alex missed the par-4 16th green right, it marked the fifth straight green missed by the brothers. But again, they scrambled for par. Then Alex hit one of the shots of the week, a long-iron 186 yards to 15 feet. Up ahead, Smalley and Springer tied the lead with birdie at the last, setting up the Fitzpatricks with a birdie-and-win scenario on No. 18.
“Matt put his arm around me after he just stiffed it to a foot on the last,” Matt said. "... It was like all the times when we were at Hallamshire Golf Club, our home golf club in Sheffield, you know, and you are putting on the putting green and you have a putt to win a PGA Tour event or a major or whatever, and stood there with the ability to win a PGA Tour event with just a foot left, yeah, it was an amazing thing. Never thought it would happen.”
When it did, the Fitzpatrick’s finishing the week with a 1-under 71 and record-setting 31-under total, Matt soon was there to embrace him, followed by parents, Russ and Sue. (Matt’s wife, Katherine, pregnant with their first child, was back home in South Florida and immediately received a call as the Fitzpatricks exited scoring.)
“I think that was a harder watch than the U.S. Open,” Russ said, “because I knew how much it meant to Al really, and it meant a lot to Matt because I know he wanted to do it for his brother.”
While the Fitzpatricks dined at popular French Quarter eatery Mr. B’s each of the past four nights, they were unsure if a fifth visit would be in order.
Regardless of where they end up celebrating, the good times will keep rolling for the brothers Fitzpatrick.