Top Golf Newsmakers of 2022: No. 15 Matt Fitzpatrick

With an up-and-down from a fairway bunker on the 72nd hole, the 28-year-old Englishman won the U.S. Open at The Country Club.

Who He Is: PGA Tour member, 2022 U.S. Open champion

SI Golf Rank: 11 (Bob Harig), 20 (Jeff Ritter), 13 (John Schwarb)

Why He's Here: Will Zalatoris called it a “one in 20, at best” shot, and even the man who hit it said it was the one part of his game he had really been struggling with all season. But Matt Fitzpatrick delivered from a fairway bunker on the 72nd hole of the 2022 U.S. Open–the loneliest of beaches in golf–saving par and, when Zalatoris’s birdie putt slid by, winning the 122nd U.S. Open.

U.S. golf fans could be forgiven for not having the Englishman on their short list of contenders coming into The Country Club, as the 28-year-old had won the 2013 U.S. Amateur at the same course but had yet to win anywhere on the PGA Tour. He had won seven times on the DP World Tour, including a pair of DP World Tour Championship events in Dubai.

Other Top Newsmakers: No. 16. Keith Pelley | No. 17 Judge Beth Labson Freeman | No. 18 Max Homa | No. 19 Rose Zhang | No. 20 Henrik Stenson

Fitzpatrick finished T5 at the PGA Championship one month prior and was tied for second going into Sunday, so the bookmakers properly took note in installing him as around a 25-1 shot to win the U.S. Open. He wasn’t the flashiest player at Brookline, never having any day’s low round, but 68-70-68-68 proved to be national champion worthy. And the 9-iron shot from the scruffy fairway bunker will be the lasting replay.

Fitzpatrick became the first player to win a U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur on the same course, a nugget repeated ad nauseum though one more borne out of coincidence as few courses now host both.

2023 Outlook: The world No. 9 finished T14 at the 2022 Masters and will be on the short list of favorites now that he comes in as a major champion. His bid to become the eighth back-to-back U.S. Open champion will come at Los Angeles Country Club. And of course he’ll be an anchor on a European Ryder Cup that will look to extend a three-decade run of home dominance, though they’ll likely be an underdog on paper.