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20th June 2022
01:16pm BST

"You look throughout the week, the shots that you hit and the different times, it's strange because that probably is such a huge shot in the moment. If I'm honest, I look back to my three approaches into 15, 16, and 17 as all really, really good shots. 18 was kind of just a bit of hit and hope."A member of one of Jack Nicklaus golf clubs, down in Florida, Fitzpatrick revealed that 'The Golden Bear' had reached out to him after his US Open win. Nicklaus and Fitzpatrick are the only two male golfers to win the US Amateur and US Open at the same course. "Any time you're sharing a record with Jack Nicklaus, it's unbelievable," the 27-year-old said. "So for me to have that as well is incredible. He called me up down there just at the presentation to congratulate me. Coming from someone like that, it means the world." [caption id="attachment_264833" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Matthew Fitzpatrick of England is injterviewed by Mike Tirico of NBC Sports. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)[/caption]
"It's funny," Fitzpatrick added, "after Shane won The Open, and we were playing somewhere, and he was telling me a story about one of his mates was giving him abuse or he wasn't playing very well, or something. And he just said, but it didn't really matter, though, because I just thought I've won a major. I'll be using that one a lot, for when things aren't going my way. "Yeah, it's definitely, you want to go win more now, there's no doubt about that. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm not trying to change things. I'll probably have a sit-down meeting with everyone and just try and make the right decisions going forward. "It's easy to still go off track. I've just got to keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully more will come. I'm delighted with one so far."During that press conference, Fitzpatrick was asked about his hometown of Sheffield by esteemed golf writer Alan Shipnuck. "Sheffield, where I grew up playing golf, Hallamshire. Windy, tough, tight, really small greens! All jokes aside, it's actually similar to here. Just doesn't have the length. But always really windy. When growing up, it was kind of the same wispy, high rough as well, so you had to learn to control your ball flight and chip well because you just weren't going to hit that many greens." The American followed up by asking Fitzpatrick if Sheffield was 'kind of scrappy'. The Open champion replied:
"It's a steel town, but I love Sheffield. It's great. It's where I'm from. It's where my football team's from. Yeah, it's where all my best pals are from, so yeah."https://www.instagram.com/p/Bab5cz6ltga/?hl=en "Not to compare it to my football team," the Sheffield United fan added, "but I feel like I'm the same deal. Not expected to do well, not expected to succeed. I've won a major today." He may have been tongue-in-cheek with that six majors target, but Matt Fitzpatrick is in great form as he heads into the final major of the year, next month - The Open at St Andrew's.
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