Matt Fitzpatrick - The Professional Golfer With Unlimited Resources - Is Whining About His Clubs Again

Matt Fitzpatrick is the No. 10 ranked player in the world, is less than two years removed from winning the U.S. Open, and has represented Team Europe in the Ryder Cup three times. With that sort of resume, him having every resource imaginable at his disposal, and his love for analytics, one would imagine he would have his equipment dialed to perfection.

Apparently that isn't the case for th 29-year-old Englishman, and he's made sure to let everyone know it.

At last month's Players Championship, Fitzpatrick shared that he had played the entire 2023 season and the first couple of months of this year's campaign with a four-gram weight in his driver that he simply forgot about. He concluded that the forgotten weight was causing his misses off the tee to be a quick pull to the left.

He re-discovered the hidden weight and removed it ahead of the WM Phoenix Open. In his six starts since removing the weight, Fitzpatrick has earned three Top 15 finishes, but missed two cuts along the way as well.

Now that the driver seems to be fixed, Fitzpatrick has moved on to complaining about his irons at Augusta National.

Fitzpatrick stood on the 18th tee on Thursday at a very respectable 2-under par and hit a quality drive up the left side of the fairway. This left him with a routine 175-yard shot to the pin, but he sailed the green by at least 10 yards before failing to get his ball up and down and walking off the final green with a bogey.

Speaking with the media in Augusta after his opening round 71, Fitzpatrick brought up "equipment issues," and according to Golf.com, he did so unprompted.

"Yeah, I felt like I played good," Fitzpatrick said. "Just having a couple more equipment issues."

(Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Given his recent history of blaming the tools in his bag, he was asked what the issue was this time around.

"My short irons just do not want to spin," Fitzpatrick explained. "So you get some that I hit and ball just goes forever. Prime example on the last there, just wants to go forever. You don’t know when you’re going to get them."

"The numbers are kind of OK, but there is only so much you can do with the set I’ve got. I like the set. I have actually been hitting them well. Just having two or three a round where it’s, like, that is not right," he continued, while also stating he's been dealing with short-iron issues for the last two or three weeks.

Fitzpatrick is a major champion and one of the best golfers walking the planet, but that doesn't mean he can't be criticized for moaning about his equipment. Being frustrated after a bogey on the final hole of the day is understandable, but taking the route of whining to the media about your short irons not being completely dialed is nothing but annoying. 

Fitzpatrick doesn't have a contract with a specific club manufacturer, he could legitimately have a handful of differently branded irons in his bag if he wanted to, but instead he's chosen to stick with the Ping Blue Print S irons he's been having issues with for the last three weeks.

That sounds like a personal problem.