Ascent rapid for British amateur Fitzpatrick

In less than a year’s time, amateur golfer Matthew Fitzpatrick has gone from playing in a junior tournament on the outskirts of Augusta to teeing it up with pro golf’s biggest stars at Augusta National Golf Club for the 2014 Masters Tournament.

Fitzpatrick, then an 18-year-old from Britain, was among the world’s top junior stars last year, finishing eighth in the elite Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, a Tom Fazio-designed course in Aiken County.

Little did anyone know what kind of heights Fitzpatrick would reach in the next five months, even though he had been the British Boys Amateur champion in 2012.

In July, he was low amateur in the British Open. One month later, he became the first Brit to win the U.S. Amateur in 102 years (and second ever), earning an invitation to the Masters as well as the U.S. Open and British Open.

“I had in mind that I might be able to do well, but I didn’t think about getting this far, really,” Fitzpatrick said of his 4 and 3 victory over Oliver Goss in the U.S. Amateur final at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

There was more in his 2013 amateur season. He played for Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup in early September, posting a 3-1 record in a 17-9 loss to the U.S.

Now, Fitzpatrick, 19, has the chance to add the low amateur award in the Masters to the one he won in the British Open.

He’s one of six amateurs in the Masters. The others are Goss, Asia-Pacific Amateur champion Chang-woo Lee, British Amateur champion Garrick Porteous, U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Michael McCoy and U.S. Public Links champion Jordan Niebrugge.

To win the sterling silver cup as low amateur in the Masters, the player must first make the cut.

“My main goal of the Masters is to make the cut and then push on from there really,” Fitzpatrick said via e-mail. “It is a secondary goal to try and win the lowest amateur trophy, and it certainly would be nice to achieve both.”

By tradition, the current U.S. Amateur champion is paired with the reigning Masters champion for the first two rounds. That means Fitzpatrick has a date with Adam Scott on the first tee on April 10 and 11.

“I have never met Adam before, so I am looking forward to meeting him,” Fitzpatrick said. “Obviously, he is a fantastic player, and it will be great to play with last year’s winner.”

Fitzpatrick won’t have far to go to get to the first tee for his rounds. He plans to stay in the Crow’s Nest, the dormitory-style lodging on the third floor of Augusta National’s clubhouse, which can be used by amateurs in that year’s Masters.

Fitzpatrick attended Northwestern University on a golf scholarship in fall 2013, but not for long.

As a freshman, he had two top-10 finishes in five starts, including being co-medalist in one event. After the first semester, though, he left school and returned home for good.

“I very much enjoyed my experience at Northwestern,” Fitzpatrick said in a release issued by the university. “The people, the school and the great city of Chicago all exceeded my expectations. I want to thank (head coach) Pat (Goss), (assistant coach) David (Inglis) and my teammates for everything they did for me.

“Based on the opportunities I have right now, from a golf perspective, I feel it is important to dedicate 100 percent of my time to the game and have decided to withdraw from university in the U.S.,” he said.

Fitzpatrick has remained an amateur. He would lose his spots in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open were he to turn pro.

“At the minute I have no plans to turn pro anytime soon,” he said in the e-mail interview. “I am mainly just seeing how this year goes. I would like to play all three majors.”

Fitzpatrick will get a real taste of golf on the PGA Tour before he heads home in late April. He played in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in late March, will tee it up in the Masters and then has a sponsor exemption to play
in the Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C., the next week.

“I think I have been offered a few more, but I’m not sure what they are, and I’ve not committed to any more yet,” he said.

Fitzpatrick will no doubt be the answer to a trivia question one day: Who was the first former Junior Invitational at Sage Valley participant to play in the Masters?

“That just shows you how good our field is,” Junior Invitational tournament chairman Tom Wyatt said. “We’re thrilled Matthew is going to be participating.”

The first Junior Invita-tional alumnus almost made his debut in the 2013 Masters. Austria’s Matthias Schwab, who played at Sage Valley in 2012, lost in the British Amateur finals that year, 1-up to Alan Dunbar of Northern Ireland. The winner earns a Masters invite.

Wyatt said the organizers of the Junior Invtational, which debuted in 2011, wondered at the time how long it would be before one of its players made the Masters field.

“We knew it was only a matter of time,” Wyatt said. “You’re definitely seeing, especially in Matthew’s case, seeing the (U.S. Amateur) winner getting younger. It’s not just kids in college.”