Matthew Fitzpatrick to play through neck injury at Pebble Beach

PEBBLE Beach, Calif. — Reigning U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick reported Wednesday he has been dealing with a neck personal injury that has prevented him from getting entirely healthy as he prepares to contend in 3 straight PGA Tour situations, starting with this week’s Pebble Beach front Pro-Am.

“I damage my neck very last Saturday. So it truly is still not 100 %,” Fitzpatrick explained. “I can even now participate in, but I’ve not obtained like full velocity or nearly anything like that.”

With forthcoming specified activities at the Squander Management Open up in Phoenix and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, Fitzpatrick stated he is dealing with this week’s celebration at Pebble Seaside as a “warm-up” to see wherever his activity is at.

“I’ve had it on and off all over the decades,” the 28-12 months-old Fitzpatrick explained of the neck damage, which he described as a “stiffness” on the ideal side. “But I’m not precisely sure how I’ve finished it. Just heading by means of the ball is just a tiny bit additional tricky than regular.”

Very last yr, Fitzpatrick rose up the ranks and received the U.S. Open, thanks in component to a properly-chronicled and concerted exertion to incorporate speed to his driver. The 28-calendar year-aged was best-10 in strokes obtained off the tee last season.

Due to the fact of his status as one of the best-20 players in the Player Influence Software (PIP), Fitzpatrick is essential to participate in in all but 1 of the tour’s 17 designated functions this season, which incorporate the four majors and have augmented prize purses of all over $20 million.

“I consider the big factor that has been talked about a whole lot with the gamers is we type of want to enjoy fewer,” Fitzpatrick said. “I do think there’s as well a lot golf, irrespective of what degree you’re at. Getting 53 tournaments in a 52-a-year cycle is absurd. It is really too a lot golfing.

“I just assume individuals most likely require a crack from it. They could watch golf every single 7 days from January to December. I think that’s why I assume obtaining fewer, but having the greatest gamers alongside one another additional, is clearly the way to go.”

The addition of the tour’s specified functions is element of a revamped program in the confront of LIV Golfing poaching gamers from the PGA Tour. Another part of the evolution in golf’s landscape is the “strategic alliance” involving the PGA Tour and the DP Environment Tour, which was strengthened last 12 months and resulted in co-sanctioning a handful of European activities and 10 tour playing cards for the top DP Environment Tour players every single year.

On the notion that the DP Planet Tour is now a feeder tour for the PGA, Fitzgerald acknowledged that has been the situation for the past ten years or so offered the influx of funds the tour has had. He claimed a lot more needs to be accomplished to justify the alliance. This season, there are no selected activities outdoors of U.S. soil, some thing Fitzpatrick explained Wednesday he’d like to see.

“I do feel the strategic alliance is fantastic,” Fitzpatrick explained. “But at the same time, I come to feel like there probably requires to be a very little bit much more accomplished from the PGA Tour to Europe. I assume it is almost certainly a small little bit one-sided. We like to say, like ‘growing the game’ … I assume it would be really fantastic to type of consider situations in excess of there alternatively than form of just getting like, ‘Oh, perfectly, the European Tour does that, so we never will need to hassle.'”