Matt Fitzpatrick Makes Incredibly Bizarre Triple Bogey At Memorial, Confusing PGA Tour Fans
Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick got off to a fast start Thursday morning at the Memorial Tournament. He spent a good chunk of the early part of the day in first place after making birdie on two of his first five holes at this week's PGA Tour stop in Ohio.
Then, he made a third birdie on the seventh hole, putting him at three-under and in first place by himself. But that's when the wheels fell off. On the eighth hole at Muirfield Village, the host course of the Memorial Tournament, Fitzpatrick made bogey.
Not ideal, but nothing like what happened to him on the ninth hole during the first round of the penultimate signature event on the PGA Tour schedule this season.
Matt Fitzpatrick made a triple-bogey on the 9th hole of the Memorial Tournament during the first round of this week's PGA Tour stop.
(Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Fitzpatrick hit a decent drive on the par four, finding himself just off the fairway along the left side. But his approach shot sailed way left and landed on a downslope in the deep rough to the left of the green.
Matt Fitzpatrick puts himself in a tough spot during the Memorial Tournament, confuses PGA Tour fans with his decisions from that moment forward.
Fitzpatrick made the determination that he couldn't stop the ball on the green from that position, which was important because there is water to the right of the green on the ninth hole.
Instead of trying, he attempted to hit the ball into the greenside bunker on the left side of the green. However, he missed. He left it short of the bunker, still in the rough. He made the same determination again, that the best course of action was to put the ball in the sand.
He got it into the bunker from there, but he lay four in the sand on a par-4, meaning he needed to get up-and-down for double-bogey.
But he couldn't even pull that off. The ball took off and ended up in the fringe on the right side – which highlighted why he didn't try to get to the hole from the rough.
He nearly put the ball in the water from the sand, despite being able to get much more air under the ball and much more spin out of the bunker than he would have been able to generate from the rough.
He two-putted from the fringe to put a SEVEN on his card, a triple-bogey. In two holes, Fitzpatrick went from the tournament leader at three-under par to outside the Top 20 at one-over par.
An unfortunate and complete disaster for Fitzpatrick, which confused many PGA Tour fans. I did my best to explain why Fitzpatrick made those decisions during the first round of the Memorial, but it's easy to see why the move was confusing to many.
Tough look for Matt Fitzpatrick, but there's still a lot of golf to play at Muirfield Village. Remember, you can't win a PGA Tour tournament on Thursday, but you can lose it.
Fitzpatrick didn't lose the Memorial, yet, but he probably needs to reconsider his strategies for the rest of the weekend.