Matt Fitzpatrick has a U.S. Open on his resume. His brother Alex just won a PGA Tour event. Between the two of them, that’s a combined lifetime of professional golf training, fitness coaches, and launch monitor data. This week at St Andrews, their mum beat them both with one swing.
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What Actually Happened
Sue Fitzpatrick was playing alongside her sons in the pro-am portion of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship — the event that pairs DP World Tour pros with amateurs, including family, for a few holes of genuine chaos before the real tournament starts. On Friday, with both Matt and Alex already in the field as tour pros hitting their own approach shots, their mother stepped up and hit a fairway metal to three feet.
Three feet. From a fairway metal. Closer than either of her sons managed with their approach shots on the same hole.
Golf Digest called it the shot of the tournament. Not the shot of the pro-am, not the shot by an amateur — the shot of the entire week, full stop, at an event featuring Brooks Koepka and a field stacked with DP World Tour and PGA Tour regulars.
Why This Is the Good Kind of Ballsy
There’s a very specific kind of pressure in a pro-am: you’re not just playing a casual round, you’re playing in front of your professional sons, their peers, and whatever gallery happens to be following the group that week at the Home of Golf. Most amateurs in that spot are relieved just to make contact. Sue Fitzpatrick picked a club, committed to the shot, and stuffed it closer than two tour pros managed — with her own kids watching.
This isn’t the family’s first rodeo with this kind of moment, either. The Fitzpatricks are becoming golf’s most entertaining family act: Matt and Alex won the Zurich Classic together as a pro duo earlier this year, with their mum reportedly walking straight from a post-round concert to go celebrate with them. This week, she made sure everyone remembered her name too.
The Takeaway
Somewhere out there, every weekend golfer who’s ever been nervous playing in front of their adult kids just got a little bit of cover. If Sue Fitzpatrick can out-strike two tour professionals under pressure at St Andrews, your shaky tee shot in front of your own family is allowed to miss the fairway occasionally too.
For more info: Golf Digest
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