Michael Jordan was one of the most intense competitors any sport has ever seen.
The competitiveness Jordan brought to the court wasn’t exclusive to NBA games. He applied himself totally to every day in practice, which drove his Chicago Bulls to one of the most dominant eras of basketball ever in the 1990s.
But as well as being one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Jordan is also a golf fanatic. He was seen supporting Team USA during this year’s Ryder Cup in New York.
He’s friends with Luke Donald, Tiger Woods, and some of the all-time greats of the game. He even owns a golf course in South Florida called The Grove XXIII.
Matthew Fitzpatrick said he spoke to Jordan after winning the US Open in 2022, and he’s learned something from the NBA great which has changed the way he approaches practice.
Matt Fitzpatrick says Michael Jordan helped him change his practice habits
Fitzpatrick has tracked every shot he has taken since he was 15. He is one of the hardest workers in the sport and is totally dedicated to improving his craft on the practice range. That has led to a major championship win and two victories on the PGA Tour during his career.
But you’re never too good to improve your habits, even routines as ritualistic as Fitzpatrick’s. And as Fitzpatrick learned, advice can come from anywhere, and any sport. He has taken lessons from Jordan on how to approach the game away from the course.
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, he explained, “I have not spent a lot of time with him but I’m a member of his club in Florida and the guy who coaches him has learnt a lot off Michael and he’s shared some of that with me.”
He continued: “His big thing was practicing with intensity. It’s like every shot matters. That is one thing we have tried to add in to practice away from tournaments. It’s harder at tournaments because you only really have the range.
“But [away from tournaments] we can create the intensity by saying if you don’t complete it, start again. And then if you don’t complete it again, start again.
“It’s things like that that I think were so big for him and that’s what I have been told by the coach at the Grove, Darren May, and I think that’s a fantastic lesson. That every shot has an intention and it’s intense and there’s a consequence to it.
“I think it’s hard to have that in golf because it’s easy to just drag another ball out and start again but if you have only got five shots, you need to hit it here the first one, if you don’t you are done. It’s having those things, like a task that has a consequence.”
Fitzpatrick won’t ask Tiger Woods for advice because he’s a fellow competitor. He himself has admitted that he doesn’t like sharing tips with fellow professionals. It’s interesting that Fitzpatrick is instead leaning on all-time greats from other sports to take his game to the next level.
Matt Fitzpatrick looks to build on Ryder Cup performance
There were some concerns about Fitzpatrick ahead of the Ryder Cup for Donald. He was told to improve his form on the back end of the 2025 season, and did, but he had a poor record in the competition going into 2025, having won only one point in three Ryder Cups.
But at Bethpage Black, Fitzpatrick was one of Europe’s best players. He went 3-1-1, earning an important half-point in singles against Bryson DeChambeau on the final day and taking a win in both foursomes and fourball.
Fitzpatrick was Europe’s third-best player on strokes gained with +4.59 over the event. He was second on the team approaching the green and gained the second-most strokes from tee-to-green.
The promise shown by Fitzpatrick before the Ryder Cup was carried into the tournament, and now he hopes to build on that form heading into the 2026 season.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
