For two years, Matt Fitzpatrick has criticized the tour for ignoring the slow play issue, but on Sunday at the Valspar Championship, he refused to look away. And he did not stop at just raising his voice.
Mid-round, Fitzpatrick had seen enough. He walked up to a PGA Tour rules official and complained about the pace of play of his playing partner, Adrien Dumont de Chassart. NBC analyst John Wood put it plainly on air:
“He is a little perturbed with his playing partner’s pace of play. It is glacial, to be kind.”
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Rules official Orlando Pope confirmed Fitzpatrick raised the issue, and the Tour responded by unofficially timing Dumont de Chassart before issuing him an official warning. As per USGA Rule 5.6, players are expected to play each shot within 40 seconds and keep up with the group ahead, with the first offense resulting in a formal warning.
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The frustration then peaked at the 11th hole.
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Despite being closer to the green, Matt Fitzpatrick hit his approach first, walked up, and waited nearly three minutes for Dumont de Chassart to play his shot. Three minutes standing still while leading the final round.
And yet, none of it broke him.
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A week earlier at The PLAYERS Championship, he led by one stroke on the 18th, dealt with fans chanting during his backswing, and still came agonizingly close before Cam Young birdied the last hole to win by one. A golfer who had handled all of that was never going to let a slow-playing partner derail him.
This frustration, though, was not new.
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Matt Fitzpatrick called slow play “appalling” in 2023, labeled the Tour’s response “pathetic” in 2024, and has repeatedly flagged the issue when paired with slower players. Sunday was simply the latest and loudest example of his slow-play series that has been going on for years.
Dumont de Chassart, for his part, was having a difficult afternoon regardless of the warning. He hit his opening tee shot out of bounds, made two triple bogeys on par-5s, and carded a 74. Jordan Smith finished one stroke back. Meanwhile, Xander Schauffele shot a 65 to finish at eight under.
But the bigger story was still being written on the leaderboard.
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Matt Fitzpatrick let his scorecard do the talking
Matt Fitzpatrick started Sunday three shots behind overnight leader Sungjae Im, but he did not panic. By the time he birdied the 18th for his third birdie of the round, without dropping a single shot all day, he was the champion.
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He shot 68-69-68-68, finished at 11 under, and earned $1,638,000 and 500 FedExCup points, ending a three-year winless stretch on the PGA Tour.
“I felt I was playing well going into this week and wanted to continue that,” Fitzpatrick said. “To do that over four rounds was special.”
And his 2026 season told the same story.
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He achieved a T14 at Pebble Beach, a ninth-place finish at the WM Phoenix Open, a T24 at Genesis, and a runner-up position at The PLAYERS, accumulating a total of $2,725,000. The Valspar was not a sudden surge in form. It was the culmination of a player who had been knocking on the door all season, finally walking through it.
Three years without a win, a near-miss at The PLAYERS, and a mid-round slow-play battle at Valspar. Fitzpatrick answered it all the same way: with his scorecard.