Matthew Fitzpatrick heads into the 2025 Ryder Cup with a point to prove with the Englishman so far failing to win a single match in the event on American soil.
Despite a tough start to the year, Matthew Fitzpatrick did enough to earn a spot on Luke Donald‘s team for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage. Fitzpatrick was superb at The Open Championship and ended up in a tie for fourth.
Unfortunately, his record in the States is not good. Fitzpatrick has lost all five of the Ryder Cup matches he has played across the Atlantic, with three of those losses coming at Whistling Straits in 2021.
Of course, that week in Wisconsin proved to be extremely difficult for anyone associated with the European side as they were on the receiving end of a record defeat.
What Justin Thomas did at the 2021 Ryder Cup which upset Matthew Fitzpatrick
Team USA won each of the first three sessions 3-1 to take a 9-3 lead into Saturday afternoon. It meant that Padraig Harrington‘s men faced a huge task just to try and put themselves in the same spot going into the singles that led to the Miracle at Medinah nine years earlier.
And the Americans were in the mood to celebrate. Many will remember Justin Thomas and Daniel Berger drinking beers on the first tee in the early stages of Saturday afternoon.
Both men were rested for the session and were clearly determined to ensure the atmosphere remained electric. But their actions did not go down well with everyone.
Speaking on The Fried Egg Golf Podcast at the weekend, Andy Johnson noted that Fitzpatrick was not at all impressed by their actions.
“An amusing anecdote of Fitzy too, I was walking around at Whistling Straits and it was the afternoon that JT chugged the beer, Fitzy was very p—-d off about that. He was not playing, but he was very upset,” he said.
“He does get fired up, but he was kind of talking out loud to anyone who wanted to hear it about the absurdity of them chugging beer on the tee.”
Team USA had good reason to not fear another Medinah at the 2021 Ryder Cup
It is not surprising that Fitzpatrick was offended. Thomas and Berger would have known how their actions would have looked had Europe produced another incredible comeback. So clearly, they felt confident that the result was in the bag – even if most of the beer appeared to end up on the ground anyway.
And in truth, they had good reason to be confident. Saturday afternoon was the only session all week where Europe avoided a heavy defeat. They drew 2-2 to make the scoreline 11-5.
Fitzpatrick is a different player heading into 2025. He became a major champion at Brookline the year after Whistling Straits. And in truth, Fitzpatrick is in much better form than Justin Thomas right now.
You would imagine that that incident on the shores of Lake Michigan will be long forgotten. But it may cross Fitzpatrick’s mind if he is drawn with Thomas at some stage at Bethpage. He did actually play Berger in the Sunday singles, losing on the final hole in the anchor match.
Certainly, the 2025 Ryder Cup looks set to be considerably closer. And with that, it would be a big surprise if any player allowed themselves to be seen drinking a beer before they are done for the week on Sunday.
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