Matt Fitzpatrick Reveals Jack Nicklaus-Inspired Equipment Change

Matt Fitzpatrick certainly can’t be accused of resting on his laurels following his US Open triumph in 2022. The Englishman is renowned as one of the sport’s hardest workers and revealed the latest change he’s made in a bid to improve his game in 2023.

And it’s one that was inspired by a certain Jack Nicklaus and put into play for the Sentry Tournament of Champions. Specifically, the Englishman has added weight to the top end of his irons to make them easier to move left to right.

“I think my changes to my irons has been a positive one,” Fitzpatrick said, following a third-round 66 in Kapalua. ”We kind of put weights in the grip to make them a little bit more fade biased, which has felt a little bit more comfortable out there. I think that on top of everything else has been a real positive so far.

“It's about eight grams, might be a bit more. I actually spoke to Mr. Nicklaus about it because someone told me he did it. I asked him and, yeah, we sort of had a quick chat about why he did it and stuff.

“He just said that he did it because it just stopped his hands over rotating. It obviously kept them, in my terms I guess it would be more held off. So I think that's obviously what suited him.”

Fitzpatrick fired rounds of 66, 69 and 66 to kickstart his 2023 campaign, so his relationship with the 18-time Major champion seems to be paying off. The pair struck up a rapport last January when Fitzpatrick took the whole month off to practise at The Bear’s Club. 

“I spent a lot of time with him, particularly January of last year,” he added. “I ended up having lunch with him three or four occasions and we were just chatting about life and golf and stuff. For me growing up it's a dream to be able to talk to someone like that, let alone one of the greatest if not the greatest to play the game.”

It certainly could be worse.