As the dinner hour came and went Monday night, England’s Matt Fitzpatrick was feeling overheated, hungry and dehydrated. Throw in completely knackered, and it represented the grand slam of fatigue.
“That about sums it up,” he said.
Not only had the rising golf prospect played 18 holes in the heat of the afternoon at Al Badia Golf Club, where temperatures in the sunshine approached 43°C during the first round of the Mena Tour's Sheikh Maktoum Dubai Open, but his professional circumstances certainly conspired against him, too.
The rookie from Sheffield, who turned 20 three weeks ago, finished eighth at the Challenge Tour event in Kazakhstan on Sunday night, then caught a plane to Dubai on Monday morning, arriving shortly before 11am. He headed straight to the course, warmed up for a few minutes, then played in the day’s final threesome, teeing off shortly after 1pm, during the hottest portion of the day.
Adding another layer of duress was the fact that Fitzpatrick, the 2012 US Amateur champion, was playing Al Badia sight unseen.
He then promptly birdied three of the first five holes and finished with a 1-under 70 that left him four shots off the lead.
Even for a player in a hurry to establish his pro credentials, the 24-hour period was a mad rush.
Playing a course without a practice round can be an adventure, though he is certainly talented enough to get away with it. “I definitely wouldn’t [recommend it],” he said, laughing. For first-year players, even uniquely skilled ones, the first year can be an exercise in frantic cab rides, lengthy airline layovers and late-night phone calls to travel agents.
Fitzpatrick, who is trying to secure a card on the European Tour for 2015, is playing the developmental Challenge circuit and has signed up for the autumn qualifying school, doubling down on his bets. There was some method to the madness to this week, though.
Fitzpatrick, who has an endorsement deal with Golf in Dubai, the organisation that runs the Mena Tour, will log three rounds this week at Al Badia, where the Challenge Tour season finale will be played in November. If he advances that far, he will not be playing blind the next time around.
“It could be of a big benefit, really,” he said. The former Walker Cup player, who was the first Englishman in 102 years to win the US Amateur title, has made seven of 10 cuts since turning pro at the European Tour’s Irish Open over the summer.
That is no surprise, since he finished as low amateur at both the US and British Opens before deciding to play for pay.
The world’s No 1-ranked amateur in 2013, the baby-faced Briton is a retro-style player in an era of oversized bombers.
He weighs about 65 kilograms, stands 1.73 metres and looks like the high-school kid who wipes your clubs at the end of the round.
In a way, this week stands as a fitting synopsis of his immediate future. In juggling uncertain paths on the Challenge Tour and Q-School, anything could happen.
“I’m just trying to play the best I can and try to get on the main tour as quickly as possible,” he said.
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