Rookie makes his mark in crowded leaderboard at Cadillac Championship
Alex Fitzpatrick arrived at Trump National Doral this week still riding the high of last weekend’s breakthrough win alongside his brother Matt at the Zurich Classic.
Two rounds into the Cadillac Championship, that momentum has turned into something more tangible.
Fitzpatrick followed an even-par opening round with a bogey-free 6-under-66 on Friday, pushing himself to 6-under for the tournament and into a tie for sixth heading into the weekend. In his first solo PGA test since earning a two-year exemption. The 27-year-old Englishman suddenly looks like more than a feel-good carryover story.
“I would say I feel a little more comfortable,” Fitzpatrick said. “The amount of people that have come and congratulated me really made me feel welcome, made me feel at home. So it was really nice to kind of have that from everyone. And then to go out and play two solid rounds of golf, I think that that’s definitely settled me down a little bit.”
That comfort showed in the numbers.
After a first round that featured five bogeys, Fitzpatrick cleaned up nearly everything Friday. He made six birdies, hit 17 greens and ranked tied for first in driving accuracy on the day at better than 85%.
The round started off hot. Birdies on holes 1, 2, 3 and 5 gave him early momentum, and he held the score together on a back nine that grew tougher as the wind picked up.
Fitzpatrick said the biggest lesson from Thursday was simple: on a course like Doral, the fairway matters.
“I think it’s really important to be in the fairway here,” he said. “I think the thing about this golf course is when the wind picks up, it becomes really, really hard. So I think it’s super important to try to take advantage of the holes with no wind.”
He said that once the back nine got breezier, the day became less about chasing and more about surviving.
“It was just kind of about hanging in there,” Fitzpatrick said. “I felt like I hit a lot of great shots today, and gave myself an opportunity for the weekend to go enjoy it more.”
That shift from Thursday to Friday is what makes Fitzpatrick one of the tournament’s more interesting weekend stories. Earlier in the week, he described his first start as a member on the Tour as feeling like “the first day of school.” Now, after two days at Doral, he sounds more settled.
In another Friday interview, Fitzpatrick said he is still trying to “feel like I belong out here,” and that this week has been a strong start toward that.
He also gave a straightforward golf reason for the leap. After not hitting his irons particularly well Thursday, Fitzpatrick said he went to the range that night, made a few tweaks and saw the difference almost immediately Friday.
“I played great today,” he said. “It was a pretty solid day of ball striking.”
The biggest problem for Fitzpatrick is that Cameron Young has given almost no ground back.
Young backed up his opening-round 64 with a 5-under 67 on Friday to move to 13-under for the tournament, keeping a four-shot lead over Nick Taylor, Jordan Spieth and Alex Smalley, who are tied for second at 8-under. Young’s second round was not as clean as his bogey-free Thursday, but it was controlled enough to keep him in command.
He said patience has been the key, especially on a course where poor drives can quickly turn into recovery golf.
“I think you have to have an understanding out here that you’re going to get in some difficult places,” Young said. “Thankfully I’ve dealt with that really well.”
More telling was his answer about the weekend. Even with a four-shot lead, Young does not sound interested in protecting anything.
“There’s no sense really playing like you have a four-shot lead,” Young said. “You might as well play like you’re four back.”
That mind-set matters because the field behind him is not exactly light.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler followed his opening 71 with a 5-under 67 of his own on Friday, moving to 6-under and into the same tie as Fitzpatrick. Scheffler did not make the kind of hard charge that tends to dominate a Friday leaderboard, but he gave himself more chances than he did Thursday and kept himself close enough to matter.
“I felt like I gave myself more looks today than I had yesterday,” Scheffler said. “Keep doing that over the course of the next couple days I think I’ll be in a decent spot.”
During Scheffler’s post-round availability, a large crowd gathered in and around the kids autograph zone, where a group of children repeatedly chanted, “Scottie! Scottie! Scottie!” throughout the session. Scheffler smiled at the scene afterward and said that kind of support is “a lot of fun” and something he appreciates week in and week out.
Scheffler also made clear that Doral is not a course built for recklessness, especially as the wind firms things up over a weekend.
“It’s kind of a choose-your-spots type of place,” he said.
Friday suggested as much. Young remains the man to catch, but the board has thickened enough to make the weekend feel open beneath him. Spieth stayed within four. Scheffler lingered. Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, may have given the tournament its most intriguing new angle.
A week after winning with his brother in New Orleans, he has turned his first solo PGA Tour start into a real weekend opportunity.
“It means a lot,” Fitzpatrick said. “I feel like I’m doing the right things with my golf game. I’m working towards the right things.”
