'I was livid' Matt Fitzpatrick slams DP World Tour over PGA Tour invites
Matt Fitzpatrick does not believe the DP World Tour should have partnered with the PGA Tour on a stategic alliance.
Matt Fitzpatrick admits he was 'livid' that a handful of PGA Tour players were invited to compete in the DP World Tour's flagship event of the season at the BMW PGA at Wentworth last month.
Fitzpatrick, 30, also declared he is baffled as to why the DP World Tour even bothered to partner with the PGA Tour on a stategic alliance in the first place back in 2020.
As it stands, the PGA Tour takes the DP World Tour's top 10 players - not otherwise exempt for a Tour card - at the end of each season.
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Even at last month's BMW PGA, the DP World Tour invited a handful of PGA Tour players to Wentworth.
That did not sit well with Fitzpatrick when he discovered it affected some of the guys who had kept their cards on the DP World Tour in 2023.
Players such as Si Woo Kim, Peter Malnati and Mark Hubbard were invited to play on the famous Wentworth West Course in Virginia Water, Surrey.
In the eyes of Fitzpatrick that should not have happened, especially given the PGA Tour doesn't invite a number of DP World Tour players into its own flagship event of the season at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.
A brutally honest Fitzpatrick told reporters:
"I don't think the [DP World] Tour should have gone with the PGA Tour.
"I was pretty livid to be honest at Wentworth when I found out that there was a handful of PGA Tour players coming to play Wentworth, and at that point in time, not every person who kept their card last year got in the field, which I think is a disgrace. That's the flagship event.
"There's no invites given to European Tour players at The Players Championship. So why are we dishing them out for Wentworth?
"I thought that was absolutely absurd that that even went through.
"Now I'm sat here as now mainly a PGA Tour player nowadays, which people probably say, well, you don't come back and play anyway. Yeah, I understand that, but I think the way of looking at it is, there's not really been left with any option. If you want to achieve the things that you want to achieve in the game, you've got to play against the best players. You have to play where the best world ranking points are, and unfortunately with that, the money follows that. So obviously everyone is going to go down that route but if you want to be the best player you're going to be, that's the way you're going to go."
Elsewhere in Fitzpatrick's presser at St Andrews, he spoke about being 'past the point of caring' where talks between PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan are concerned.
Monahan and Al-Rumayyan have been partnered together in a fourball at Carnoustie today in the opening round of the Dunhill Links.
