Shane Lowry's excuse shot down by The Open rival after throwing away lead
Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton have both raised issue with the course setup at Troon this week, but Matthew Fitzpatrick has offered a different view on the matter
Matthew Fitzpatrick has defended The Open Championship's course setup as 'fair', despite his Ryder Cup colleagues Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton voicing their grievances.
The west coast of Scotland presented a formidable challenge at Royal Troon, with players contending against gusty winds and torrential rain. The conditions reached their peak on Saturday, severely testing the frontrunners during the third round.
Shane Lowry, who was leading after 36 holes, suffered a significant setback, plummeting down the leaderboard after a disappointing six-over-par 77 on moving day. This left him trailing at one-under, a stark contrast to his two-shot lead at the start of the weekend.
Lowry expressed his frustration post-round, particularly with the tee box placements on the latter half of the course, where headwinds made play exceptionally difficult. His struggle was evident at the 17th hole, where he resorted to using his driver on the par-three just to reach the green.
Post-match, a visibly exasperated Lowry remarked, "Look, I don't really know what to say. It was a grind. It wasn't much fun," before detailing the challenges faced on the final stretch: "Driver, driver into 15. 16 playing ridiculously long. Driver into 17. Then you're standing on the 18th tee wondering if you can actually hit the fairway, if you can reach the fairway, and it's 230-yards to the fairway.
"Bear in mind my driver pitched about 220-yards on the 17th hole. So, yeah, it's not much fun out there. It's obviously very difficult. But you'd have to question why there wasn't a couple of tees put forward today, to be honest. I think 15 and 17 - like 15 is 500-yards playing into that wind."
His Ryder Cup teammate Hatton, who missed the cut after 36 holes following a disappointing second round, echoed this sentiment earlier in the week. However, Fitzpatrick had no complaints and even expressed sympathy for the RandA as he concluded his week on Sunday.
He said: "I think this has been a fantastically fair test this week. I don't know whether to feel sorry for the RandA about yesterday afternoon or whether they did get it wrong, I genuinely don't know. I think I was sat in my chair in my living room in the warmth thinking I hit eight-iron on 13 and these boys are hitting three-wood. So it was quite a difference. Aside from that, I think it's been a really good test."
Fitzpatrick found it challenging to bring his best game to Scotland this week, finishing the event at nine-over-par after a one-over 72 in the final round. He will now shift his focus to the Olympic Games in Paris, where he will represent Great Britain alongside Tommy Fleetwood at Le Golf National in August.
