Matt Fitzpatrick's victory at RBC Heritage marks another step in his pursuit for world No. 1 ranking

The 28-year-old Englishman has steadily improved his game since his days as an amateur

Matt Fitzpatrick is not the first Englishman to beat Jordan Spieth at a golf tournament in the second week of April. However, he's almost certainly the best. 2011 -2.76 - 2012 -1.69 1.07 2013 -1.15 0.54 2014 -0.72 0.43 2015 0.07 0.79 2016 0.56 0.49 2017 0.95 0.39 2018 0.87 -0.08 2019 1.24 0.37 2020 1.44 0.20 2021 1.36 -0.08

Fitzpatrick took the RBC Heritage with a lights-out 9 iron to legit kick-in distance on the third playoff hole at Harbour Town on Sunday, ending a wild two-week stretch for him that included a top 10 at the Masters and the second win of his PGA Tour career. Following a relatively slow start to 2023 on account of injury, it's a bit of a reorientation to where I thought Fitzpatrick would be at this point in the year. It was the second time in 10 months he's taken down nearly every top player in the world at a massive event. The first, of course, came last June at the U.S. Open at Brookline. 

While it sounds crazy to say out loud about someone as unassuming and physically unimposing as Fitzpatrick, it's yet another reason (in a long list of them) why he can, at some point in his career, be the No. 1 golfer in the world.