England’s Alex Fitzpatrick claimed his first DP World Tour title at the Indian Open thanks to a strong final nine holes to continue his family’s good run of form.
The 27-year-old is the younger brother of European Ryder Cup player Matt Fitzpatrick who won last week’s Valspar Championship and the siblings have made history as the first to win in successive weeks on the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. “I’ll try and explain [how it feels] without crying,” said Alex. “It’s been a lot of hard work for a long time. “As much as this is the most amazing thing in the world right now, there’s more important things in life than golf so… I’m probably going to cry but yeah, ecstatic. “It can be hard sometimes when you’re constantly chasing someone’s accolades but luckily it’s my brother. It’s extremely nice to join him in the winners’ ranks and hopefully I can continue to push on.
“I idolise him so just trying to be like him in every way so yeah, hopefully we can keep doing well.”
Fitzpatrick overhauled defending champion Eugenio Chacarra of Spain, who was four shots clear going into Sunday’s final round in New Delhi, to win by two shots
Back-to-back bogeys at the third and fourth did not help the Englishman’s cause but Chacarra’s tee-shot found the water at the eighth, leading to a bogey and a two-shot swing as Fitzpatrick made his birdie. Both players birdied the ninth to turn with Chacarra three shots ahead, half of what his lead had been on the sixth tee. Fitzpatrick bogeyed the 10th but birdied the next three, while Chacarra responded at the 13th to stay in front before missing a birdie chance at the 14th.
But things turned from the 15th as the Spaniard found a bunker off the tee to start a run of three consecutive bogeys and Fitzpatrick’s birdie gave him the lead. Fitzpatrick birdied the 17th to go four ahead and played the par-five 18th cautiously with a double-bogey seven still enough for victory.