Former Rory McIlroy ally takes dig at Matt Fitzpatrick: "His Ryder Cup record is rubbish"

Rory McIlroy’s former agent says Matt Fitzpatrick should consider himself “very lucky” to have been handed a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup. 

Renowned golf agent, Andrew “Chubby” Chandler, pulled no punches in his assessment of Fitzpatrick’s poor record in the Ryder Cup as he prepares to make his fourth appearance for Europe at Bethpage.

Fitzpatrick has lost seven of the eight matches he has played since making his debut at Hazeltine in 2016, his only win coming alongside McIlroy in Rome two years ago as they crushed Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele 5&3 in Friday’s fourballs.

He has been beaten in all three of his singles matches, but European captain Luke Donald has glossed over Fitzpatrick’s record against Team USA and decided that his excellent form over the last three months made him worthy of a pick for New York.

“You’ve been playing as good as anyone, statistically, over the last three or four months,” Donald said as he informed the 2022 US Open champion that he would be one of his six captain’s picks.

“So, welcome to the team. You’ve got plenty of experience, it’s your time to shine and I think you’re going to have a great Ryder Cup.”

But Chandler, who signed Fitzpatrick to his International Sports Management stable after he won the US Amateur Championship in 2013, believes his former client is fortunate to have retained his place ahead of the like of Marco Penge, Harry Hall and Matt Wallace.

“Matt Fitzpatrick has been very, very lucky,” Chandler said. “One point out of eight, I think, and he's in the Ryder Cup, but his Ryder Cup record is rubbish.”

Donald was clearly impressed with Fitzpatrick playing in Sunday’s final grouping in his last two starts at the Befred British Masters and the Omega European Masters, and Chandler added: “I think he played himself in over the last two weeks.

“Matt had to prove himself ahead of three or four others, and if they had played really good for weeks they would have jumped in over him.

“Personally, I think I would have picked Marco Penge as a pinch-hitter. A guy that plays maybe only three matches, a couple of fourballs maybe, but it  would have been a risk so I get it.

“If Nicolai Hojgaard had played well in the last two weeks he would have been a possibility, and if Matt Wallace had won in Switzerland, he would have given Luke Donald a big problem.

“Harry Hall is just not experienced enough and, with respect to him, he hasn't got a big game like Penge has. Penge’s got such a big game and he’s such a big strong lad that has proved himself to be pretty fearless, so you would have had a better case picking Penge over Hall.

“But then we'd be talking about a US Open champion that played great for four months not getting a pick. In the end he was always going to get the pick, even though he’s a poor Ryder Cup player.”

Our Ben Smith completely disagrees with Chandler's assertion. 

Chandler was speaking to CasinoHawks.