'He Loves Looking At Excel Spreadsheets, And I Like Playing Video Games' - Fitzpatrick Brothers Looking To Find Common Ground At Zurich Classic

In a team golf event, one might expect a brotherly connection to come in handy. At this week’s Zurich Classic, Matt Fitzpatrick and Alex Fitzpatrick will certainly hope that is the case.

The siblings, who became the first English brothers in 50 years to play in the same Open Championship last year at Hoylake, have returned to New Orleans after their encouraging T19 finish last year, just the second regular season PGA Tour start of Alex’s career.

However, while the brothers may have a shared passion for the game and competing together, it’s fair to say that their interests diverge quite rapidly after that.

“Not a lot,” Matt bluntly joked when asked by reporters ahead of the tournament what the pair enjoy doing together when they have time off.

Alex, his younger brother, went further: “The issue is we’re opposite people. He loves looking at Excel spreadsheets, and I like playing video games. There’s probably not too much in common.”

Despite their lack of shared interests off the course, the duo are hotly tipped this week, with the possibility of a PGA Tour card on offer for Alex should the pair top the leaderboard come Sunday

The 25-year-old has made a decent start to his year on the DP World Tour, recording three top-20 finishes in his first seven events.

A T23 finish at last week’s Corales Puntacana Championship helped him acclimatise to PGA Tour conditions and the former Wake Forest collegiate golfer is now hoping to kick on and contend this week.

“It’s kind of been one of those where I feel like I’ve played a lot of decent golf. I had a lot of top-20 finishes which is great for the most part, but trying to sneak into that top 10 is always nice,” he said.

“At the moment I would love to kind of push the belt a little bit and try and break into that top 10 a bit more. I feel like my game is in a good spot. I’ve got a great team around me who I’m excited for the future, and hopefully a good week this week will set the tone.”

The two brothers get their first round started at 2.10pm local time alongside the Hojgaard twins – Nicolai and Rasmus.