Five Things to Know: Alex Fitzpatrick

Here are five things to know about DP World Tour rookie Alex Fitzpatrick, a rising star in the professional game.

The second series of Netflix’s Full Swing includes a focus on the Fitzpatrick brothers, particularly how younger sibling Alex seeks to emerge from the shadow of Major Championship winner Matt and blaze his own path to golf glory.

The episode provides an inside look at the brothers' shared pursuit of success, albeit with the pair - separated by a four-year age gap - at different stages in their professional careers.

Less than a year on from joining the paid ranks, we find Alex plying his trade on the European Challenge Tour, home of many future Major champions, while Matt is among the best in the world and competing on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR.

Like with most siblings, the duo are competitive but the cameras hone in on how supportive they are of each other, while also highlighting the challenges their parents Susan and Russell face in following their sons' fortunes around the world.

Since its filming, in which we see Alex dispel doubts to outperform his better-known sibling Matt on the Major scene, the former has earned his DP World Tour membership and is already making encouraging strides in his development.

Here's what you need to know about him.

Amateur highs

Alex won titles at every level of amateur golf and represented both England and Great Britain and Ireland in international competitions.

As a freshman at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, he played the 2018-19 season alongside Cameron Young, who was a senior. He reached the quarter-finals of the 2018 U.S. Amateur and was part of an England team, featuring future PGA TOUR member Harry Hall, that lost out to a Swedish side that featured Ludvig Åberg and Vincent Normann in the final of the European Amateur Team Championship in 2019. That same year, he made the first of two Walker Cup appearances and was part of a winning International team at the Arnold Palmer Cup in 2020.

While still an amateur, he made the cut at the 2021 Cazoo Open supported by Gareth Bale, before playing at the PGA TOUR's Valspar Championship prior to his debut in the professional ranks at the 2022 Horizon Irish Open.

Brookline memories

Brookline will forever hold a special place in the heart of the Fitzpatrick family. After all, it was the scene of a childhood memory that will forever remain ingrained in both Alex and Matt and where the latter achieved the greatest moment of his career so far.

In 2013, Alex carried the bag for Matt as he won the U.S. Amateur at The Country Club in Boston, Massachusetts and nine years later was greenside to see his older brother win his first Major Championship at the U.S. Open. In the immediate aftermath, Alex Fitzpatrick revealed how his brother’s U.S. Open triumph came at a cost following a last-minute change of plans.

“I actually flew home yesterday (Saturday) afternoon and then flew straight back when I saw he was tied for the lead. It’s been a hectic 24 hours but it was definitely worth the 150 dollars coming back. I couldn’t be prouder of him. It’s his dedication to getting better each day. If you look at 99 per cent of the field, none of them would go through what he does to get better, even one per cent a day.”

Just like in 2013, the Fitzpatrick family stayed with the same host family, Will and Jennifer Fulton, and their three children, Sam, Annabelle and George.

At home on the big stage

Alex secured his full playing privileges on the DP World Tour for this season through a series of strong results last summer summer, a period in which he also claimed his first professional victory at the British Challenge presented by Modest! Golf Management on the European Challenge Tour.

A month earlier, he made a splash on one of the biggest stages in golf as he outperformed brother Matt for the first time in a professional event by finishing in a tie for 17th on his debut in The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, having come through Final Qualifying at West Lancashire. Late on in the Full Swing episode, Alex is heard saying, "It's the first day I feel like I've become my own person."

Later that month, he finished second at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics in Northern Ireland, while he was also in contention to emulate brother Matt as a winner of the Omega European Masters. In his rookie season on the DP World Tour, he has so far registered five top-20 finishes.

His golfer girlfriend

While Alex will not be in the field for the Masters Tournament, the first men's Major of the season, he is experiencing the famed venue for the first time as the caddie for his girlfriend Rachel Kuehn in this week's Augusta National Women's Amateur. Alex met American Keuhn, ranked 15th in Women's Amateur Golf Rankings, at Wake Forest.

This won't be the first time he has caddied for her, having done so on the LPGA Tour last year. She made her LPGA Tour debut at the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship and is seen supporting Alex at events during the filming of Full Swing. Alex has admitted he has a greater competitive rivalry with his girlfriend, with the pair seen taking part in chipping and putting contests. She is the daughter of Brenda Kuehn, a former high-level golfer herself who once played the U.S. Women's Open when eight months pregnant with Rachel.

His love of Sheffield United

When you talk about the Fitzpatrick brothers, it is hard to ignore their love of English football club Sheffield United. Both are long-time supporters of their hometown club and been regular visitors over the years to Bramall Lane. Former Blades boss Neil Warnock was present to see Alex win his maiden title as a professional at St. Mellion last summer, something that made brother Alex jealous.