'I needed to get myself together' - Fitzpatrick on finding form

Golf is a demanding and successful day job, but football is former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick's sporting passion - to the extent that he wants to work in the game.

It may happen one day but for now, digging his way out of the biggest slump of an otherwise glittering golf career has been the 30-year-old's priority.

It has been a difficult and emotional process, but proof that he is back came with a career-best tie for fourth at last month's Open.

He was the leading UK golfer that week on the Antrim coast and it was a fine way to end the men's major season.

Even more so given where Fitzpatrick's game was when it began at April's Masters.

The previous month he had missed the cut at the Players, parting company with caddie Billy Foster - with whom he won the 2022 US Open.

This miserable early spring confounded expectations, after taking time to reset his career following a disappointing 2024. He felt ready to contend again, but his game remained in disarray.

"I just didn't have it," Fitzpatrick told BBC Sport. "I'd put in a tonne of work, my coaches had put in so much work and it just didn't happen.

"There's no stone left unturned for me, but it's hard when you're intending to hit a shot and missing it by quite a lot. I just didn't know what was coming.

"And that's when confidence hits an all-time low and you feel like you can't progress."

By the end of the Masters, where he finished in a share of 40th place, the former world number six was 75th in the rankings.

He was not sure what to do to arrest the decline. And sometimes stuff happens away from the course as well.

Such vicissitudes contributed to what had been previously unthinkable - splitting with Mike Walker, his coach and confidante since Fitzpatrick's mid teens.

Walker works alongside fellow South Yorkshireman Pete Cowen and helped his protege win the US Amateur in 2013 before turning professional.

"My relationship with Mike is more important than golf really," Fitzpatrick said. "He's someone I've looked up to since I was 14 or 15.

"I could tell him anything and my respect for him is so high. At the same time I wasn't playing well and things probably needed to change.

"It's my job and I needed to get myself together."

The week after the Masters, Fitzpatrick started to work with the Alabama-based coach Mark Blackburn.

"It was the first time I've ever had anyone look at my swing, or get a lesson off someone not named Mike Walker or Pete Cowen in 15 years," Fitzpatrick said.

Blackburn wanted to know his new pupil's physical capabilities and his level of flexibility. They soon discovered Fitzpatrick possesses unusually long arms.

"Which is not great for hitting irons because its harder to control the depth of the club, and you are going to hit it heavier more often than not," he said.

"The other thing was I don't have great shoulder flexion and because of that, as soon as I swing it too long I come out of posture and my swing is all out of whack."

While finishing 11 under par at Portrush it was noticeable that before every shot Fitzpatrick would pull back his shoulders and push out his chest.

"It's me trying to pinch my shoulder blades together," he said.

"It is basically to create the radius of my arms, which means I can just rotate there and I don't need to stretch or move my arms."

The work is paying off. Fitzpatrick was eighth in May's US PGA at Quail Hollow, one of five top 10s since the Masters - including finishing fourth at the Scottish Open the week before Portrush, and a share of eighth at the Wyndham last Sunday.

Now he is looking to push to finish top 30 on the PGA Tour and grab a place in the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta. He currently lies 41st and competes in the first play-off event, the FedEx St Jude, which starts in Memphis this Thursday.

Asked who he credits for helping him through the toughest stretch of his career, Fitzpatrick says: "My mum and dad and wife Katherine.

"She was constantly reminding me that I won the US Open; 'you're a great player, you're going to get it back'.

"It really is true, you've got to have the right people around you and I feel very lucky that I've always had that."

The other constant has been his love of football. This conversation began with Fitzpatrick seeking contact details for a tactical expert who had appeared on the BBC Sport website.

"People think its a joke but I love football way more than golf," Fitzpatrick smiled. "I'm obsessed with football. It's brilliant for me.

"I love supporting Sheffield United, over here in the States they show every game I could wish to see, which is amazing."

Fitzpatrick has visited Premier League side Brentford and spoken face-to-face with the performance team at champions Liverpool to glean insights. His voice lights up while recalling the people he met and the chats that followed.

He was like a sponge absorbing information. "How they use data, how culture is so important," he said. "Just fascinating.

"Finding little things that maybe we could take into golf - I feel like we've taken a lot from it."

But not just golf. He claims there could come a day when he might switch sports.

"I don't know when I'll ever get time to do this, but I'd love to work in football if the opportunity ever arose in some way, shape or form," Fitzpatrick said.

"That's extremely wishful thinking, but I just find it so interesting to be part of. I love reading about it and everything about it."

More pressing is a golf career that is back on the up. Along with trying to make it to East Lake for the Tour Championship, he wants to retain his place in Europe's Ryder Cup team for next month's trophy defence at Bethpage in New York.

"It is nice to play well at the crunch time; the play-offs and the Ryder Cup," Fitzpatrick said. "To be part of that would be very special again."

He has played three Ryder Cups but his record of only one win in eight matches is a frustration, and poor reflection of the talents of someone with 10 tournament wins in his professional career.

"Despite my record I still want to be part of it to give myself a chance to improve on it," he said.

If he makes Luke Donald's team, Fitzpatrick will bring plenty of perspective to the European team.

"In the last 15 months there's been an extra effort to try and be a little bit more forgiving to myself and understanding my own psychology really," he admitted.

"My biggest thing I would take away from the slump is catching things earlier. I can't afford to get to that stage again.

"It was a tough time for me and the problem was it went on for so long. You can't afford to be behind the eight ball and you need to catch those things as early as you can, and turn them round as quickly as you can."

Spoken like a golfer who might one day deliver half-time team talks.