Alex Fitzpatrick won his first Challenge Tour event after producing a final day charge at the British Challenge at St Mellion Spa & Golf Resort in Cornwall.
The 24-year-old for Sheffield, who is the brother of 2022 US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, added a closing 68 to go with earlier rounds of 72, 66 and 70 to reach 12 under for the week and finish five shots clear of runner’s up Stuart Manley, Tom Vaillant and Ross McGowan.
Fitzpatrick, who finished 17th at last month’s Open Championship, carded just four bogeys in 72 holes in testing conditions at the Cornish venue, and the Yorkshireman was delighted to secure a maiden win on the Challenge Tour having come close on several occasions already in 2023.
“I’m ecstatic,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been playing some decent golf and I’ve been putting in a lot of work. It’s just nice to see it finally pay off. Sunday is always tough. You know people are going to make a move and luckily I was the one that did. I couldn’t be happier. Over the past year on the Challenge Tour, I feel like I’ve put myself in contention quite a lot. I did it in India and in the Netherlands, but not got it over the line. It’s been an amazing week and I’m very happy to get it done.”
Fitzpatrick started the day three strokes behind overnight leader Manley, but birdied two of his opening four holes to close the gap to one. After Manley bogeyed the sixth, Fitzpatrick took the outright lead for the first time on the following hole with a gain at the seventh. The Englishman then added back-to-back birdies on 12 and 13 to move clear and despite a bogey on the 15th, he parred his way home to secure a resounding win on a course that he admits provided a tough challenge all week.
“I bogeyed the 18th on day three, but before that I’d gone 48 holes without a bogey, which around this course is pretty good,” he added. “It’s a tough golf course, as it’s so tight off the tee. You’ve almost got to pick the widest part of the fairway to aim at, and then be sensible when approaching the greens and try to make your birdies from there. It was tense to be honest. I didn’t know where I was until I came off the 13th green where I holed a really good putt. At that point, I just had to know where I was. Our target at the start of the day was to get to 13 under par, and I was close enough.”
Victory catapults Fitzpatrick up to seventh in the season’s rankings and puts him right in the mix to join his older brother on the DP World Tour.