Gurugram: Chasing down the leader on Sunday in a golf tournament often feels like the reverse of the tortoise and the hare fable. There are few things more spectacular on a golf course than that happening. Leading into the final round is tricky business. The player must decide whether to play percentage and let the chasing pack take all the risk or stay in the bubble and execute. However, that mental steel often melts into jangled nerves.
England’s Alex Fitzpatrick produced the latest come-from-behind story on Sunday at the $2.55mn Hero Indian Open, winning his first DP World Tour title by two shots over Spain’s defending champion Eugenio Chacarra. The 27-year-old produced a 4-under par charge on the back nine, with five birdies, giving him the luxury of a double bogey on the par-5 18th hole before covering his face in elation. The victory was worth 375,811 euros (approx. $433,817).
Fitzpatrick, four shots off the lead overnight, shot a brilliant 3-under par 69, the card dotted with eight birdies besides three bogeys, reaching the 18th green four shots clear of Chacarra. The Spaniard, seemingly unshakable through the first three days and the front nine showed his fallibility first on the 11th when he had to chip from the rough and ended with a bogey. It went downhill from there with the tough DLF Golf and Country Club course exacting the price of imprecise play.
The Englishman carded 9-under for the tournament. Chacarra, who shot a final day 75, ended 7-under. South Africa’s MJ Daffue, England’s Andy Sullivan and France’s Ugo Coussad finished tied third at 5-under.
It was a sweet fortnight for the Fitzpatrick family, as older brother Matt, the 2022 US Open champion, won the Valspar Championship last week, his third PGA Tour title. Alex, who at 14 caddied for Matt’s 2013 US Amateur Championship win, has been knocking on the door for a while on the DP World Tour. Runner-up in the 2023 ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland. In India, he finished third in last year’s DP World India Championship on the Delhi Golf Course in a field that included major winners Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy and Brian Harman, besides eventual winner Tommy Fleetwood.
Fitzpatrick had been in good form with four top-20 finishes in six events this year. He was tied sixth in the Joburg Open early in March before coming to India.
Starting the day at 6-under, Alex bogeyed the third and fourth, but that only made him more determined, he explained later. He birdied three of the last four holes on the front nine, but a bogey on the 10th pegged him to 6-under, Chacarra four ahead at that point. But three birdies in a row, on 11, 12 and 13, lifted him to within one shot of Chacarra. After both had pars on the 14th hole with the Spaniard missing a makeable birdie putt, the par-five 15th saw a two-way change.
Fitzpatrick hit his second shot to about 30 feet and two putted for birdie to go 10-under par. Chacarra, having to lay up after finding the bunker off the tee, saw his third shot roll down the greenside slope. The bogey dropped him to 9-under. Unsettled, the Spaniard bogeyed the next three holes while Fitzpatrick birdied two of them, in the toughest stretch of the challenging course.
The two-shot lead going into the tricky 17th with its elevated green virtually settled the title. Fitzpatrick’s birdie and Chacarra’s bogey, after finding the greenside rough, give the Englishman a four-shot cushion. It meant he could safely lay up after finding the rough off the 18th tee and leisurely complete the job with three putts.
“I’m so proud of myself, just for the battle out there,” Fitzpatrick said. “I felt like my game was in a good spot coming into this week. I felt once I was up there, I would hopefully push the leaders and see what I could do.”
He was proud to join his brother Matt in the winner’s circle on a major tour.
“I wouldn’t say there’s many brothers apart from the Hojgaards (Dutch twins Rasmus and Nicolai in 2021 became the first brothers to win in back-to-back weeks on the DP World Tour).”
“I’m extremely lucky to have someone with so much knowledge of the game and experience that is just a call or a text away,” he said, joking, “I should probably use his information more than I do.”
