England’s Matt Fitzpatrick rises to equal second at US PGA

Matt Fitzpatrick ripped up the form book to move into contention for a second major title as Masters champion Rory McIlroy narrowly avoided an early exit from the 107th US PGA Championship.

Fitzpatrick has slumped from eighth in the world rankings at the beginning of last year to his current position of 85th and admitted after an opening 68 there were times this season he did not want to be competing.

However, the 2022 US Open champion, who sacked caddie Billy Foster in March in an attempt to turn the corner, added another 68 at Quail Hollow on Friday to lie just two shots off the halfway lead held by Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas.

Matthieu Pavon and Si Woo Kim were alongside Fitzpatrick on six under, Kim making a hole-in-one from 252 yards on the sixth in his 64, with world number one Scottie Scheffler and Max Homa – who also shot 64 – another stroke back.

McIlroy bogeyed the final two holes to add a 69 to his opening 74 and make the cut with nothing to spare on one over par, alongside playing partner and defending champion Xander Schauffele.

Fitzpatrick, who carded five birdies and two bogeys in his 68, said: “The best thing for me is I am just happy to be in this position given the start of the year I’ve had.

“It’s not one of the goals to be where I am but I have 36 holes left and I’m in with a good chance.

“I obviously want to win another major, of course I do, but I’ve already won one, so I feel like there’s less pressure when you’ve already won one definitely.”

Halfway leader Vegas, who has recorded just one top-25 finish in 16 majors, had looked set to enjoy a more sizeable lead when he reached 10 under par before taking four to get down from a greenside bunker to make a double bogey on the last.

The resulting 70 left him two shots clear of France’s Matthieu Pavon, with Max Homa another stroke back adding a 64 to his opening 73.

“I feel like finishing so late yesterday, not getting a great sleep, and having to come back early kind of put me not in the best mood all day,” Vegas, who completed an opening 64 at 8pm on Thursday, said.

“Even though it’s never easy to give two shots away right at the end, [there’s] a lot of golf left, so got to keep remembering the good stuff.”

Tyrrell Hatton would do well to take a similar attitude after swearing at his own driver after pulling his tee shot on the difficult par-four 18th into the creek which runs the length of the hole.

Hatton could be clearly heard shouting “piece of s***” at the face of his driver, followed by another word – seemingly beginning with the letter C – which was not 100 per cent clear.

Following a penalty drop, Hatton hit this third shot into the rough short of the green and failed to find the putting surface with his fourth, before seeing his fifth shot trickle back off the green.

The Englishman almost holed his next shot and tapped in for a seven before covering the front nine in 36 to complete a 73 which left him one under par.

Asked to clarify what he had said on the 18th tee, Hatton said: “You tell me, you’ve seen it.”

Told the first three words were clear but the fourth was not, Hatton replied: “OK. Well either way it wasn’t my finest moment on the course but I mean yeah, running hot in the moment I’m pretty good at sometimes saying the wrong thing.

“So yeah, I’ll leave it at that.”

It is far from the first time Hatton’s explosive temper has been seen on the course, with the world number 20 labelled a “terrible influence” by Sky Sports commentator Ewen Murray after snapping a club and complaining about course conditions during the DP World Tour Championship in November.

Hatton reacted angrily to missing a short birdie putt on the 11th hole at Jumeirah Golf Estates, exclaiming clearly “F*** you, f****** s*** greens” and banging his putter down on the green.

The LIV Golf player then broke one of his wedges after missing the green with his approach to the par-five 14th.