Matt Fitzpatrick has flipped script on Scottie Scheffler at RBC — but 1 task remains

Scottie Scheffler is used to being chased at tournaments. Normally, it’s Scheffler out in front while his fellow PGA Tour stars gush about his relentlessness, bounce-back ability, demeanor, club-head control and course management. More often than not, Scottie Scheffler is the hunted, with those behind him admiring how the World No. 1 raced past them.

This week at the RBC Heritage, the script is inverted.

Scheffler started Saturday at Harbour Town seven shots behind 36-hole leader Matt Fitzpatrick but quickly closed the gap when he went out in 5-under 31 to vault into contention. When Fitzpatrick stumbled early in his round, Scheffler suddenly had a share of the lead as he reached the closing stretch of his third round. But then Fitzpatrick, who won the Valspar last month and finished runner-up at the Players, regripped the steering wheel with birdies at No. 9 and 12 to regain the lead. Scheffler closed with birdies at 16 and 18 to shoot a 7-under 64 and get into the house at 14 under.

When Scheffler signed his card, he was on Fitzpatrick’s heels, then the 2022 U.S. Open champion birdied 14 and chipped in for eagle at 15 to extend his lead to three.

As Scheffler waltzed to a win last summer at the Open, Fitzpatrick stood in front of the media and remarked how Scheffler was “in a different class” than everyone else. On Saturday, as Fitzpatrick was polishing off a grindy 3-under 68, Scheffler assumed an unusual role — that of a hunter explaining what makes the leader exceptional.

“Fitzy is a guy that I think — I admire him because he works really hard,” Scheffler said after a sun-splashed day at Hilton Head. “He’s a guy that I see always doing stuff in order to play well. He’s a guy that gets really into his stats. He’s a guy that’s going to check every single box that he can in order to get out here and play well.

“He’s a guy that when you look has always improved over the course of his career and made some changes in order to improve. You look at him when he first came out, he was a lot slower off the tee than he is now. He’s got a lot of speed. He doesn’t use it on every single shot, but he uses it when necessary. Not only is he a hard worker, but I think he’s a really smart player.”

Fitzpatrick increased his club head speed by more than five miles per hour from 2019 to 2022. He now swings it in the 118-122 range, where before he was in the 112 mph area. In 2019, Fitzpatrick ranked 59th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee. He rose to 10th during the 2022 season when he won the U.S. Open. His game dipped in 2024, but Fitzpatrick is now back in the top 20 in SG: Off the Tee and ranked No. 7 in the world. Those gains and his current resurgence are the product of an analytical approach that is Fitzpatrick’s foundation.

Viktor Hovland has seen how Fitzpatrick goes about his business and how a unique process has helped him reclaim his spot as one of the world’s best golfers. It might not work for everyone, but Fitzpatrick doesn’t let those outside his bubble impact his approach.

“He works so hard,” Hovland said on Friday. “He’s extremely methodical. I think it’s pretty cool to see other guys, they have their thing. They have their way of trying to get better, and he goes all in on that. He doesn’t really care what other people say; he believes in what he’s doing.

“You look at his career, he just keeps winning tournaments and keeps getting better. If there’s a deficiency in his game, he tackles it and gets better, and I find that very admirable.”

Fitzpatrick will take a three-shot lead over Scheffler into Sunday at his favorite tournament on the PGA Tour schedule, one he won in a playoff over Jordan Spieth in 2023. There was a pro-Spieth crowd that day, and Fitzpatrick expects a similar vibe on Sunday as Scheffler tries to track him down. “As long as they don’t shout in my backswing, then they can do whatever they want,” Fitzpatrick said on Saturday.

He knows that a three-shot lead can evaporate quickly on Sunday against Scheffler, who is omnipresent atop leaderboards. While Fitzpatrick hasn’t lived in contention week in and week out like Scheffler, he has been working on hardening his game in the cauldron.

Last year, he arrived at Harbor Town with his game in disarray. A month later, he was in contention at the PGA. He faded. He contended at the Open, which Scheffler ran away with. Then, he won the DP World Tour Championship, was a putt away from a playoff at the Players and won the Valspar.

“It’s probably different for Scottie and Rory, who are in these positions a lot of the weeks of the year and in contention and in the mix,” Fitzpatrick said of the nerves on a Sunday. “But the more you do it, I wouldn’t say it ever gets any easier, but it might feel a little bit better, more comfortable.”

Matt Fitzpatrick is 18 holes away from his second win of the season and third worldwide win since November. He knows it won’t be easy to hold off Scheffler. But Matt Fitzpatrick is ready for the hard work ahead on Sunday; it’s what got him back to this point.