{"id":436731,"date":"2025-09-12T17:19:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=436731"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:19:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:19:20","slug":"fitzpatrick-credits-ball-thieves-at-wentworth-they-saved-me-a-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/fitzpatrick-credits-ball-thieves-at-wentworth-they-saved-me-a-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitzpatrick Credits Ball \u2018Thieves\u2019 at Wentworth: \u2018They Saved Me a Shot\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Fitzpatrick<\/a> has admitted that he received a helping hand from “two little thieves” who stole his ball at the BMW PGA Championship. The Englishman found himself in a bizarre situation on the 18th hole during the final round at Wentworth, where he carded a six-under-par 66 to stay in contention as the tournament concluded.<\/p>\n

Sliced Drive Turns Into Blessing For Fitzpatrick<\/h3>\n

The bizarre incident happened on the 18th hole on the West Course after the former US Open champion sliced his drive into a bush. The 31-year-old immediately played a provisional ball, expecting that he might not recover the original ball. After hitting a provisional to sit three off the tee, a siren signaled a 90-minute thunderstorm delay. This prompted Fitzpatrick’s caddie, Dan Parratt, to raise concerns, and he insisted that they search for his initial shot first.<\/p>\n

Also Read: Greatest Caddie In the World Splits from Matt Fitzpatrick\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Hearing that two children had been spotted running off with a ball, the Englishman requested a ruling from tournament officials. The referee ruled in his favor, allowing him to take a penalty drop when play resumed instead of using his provisional ball. The decision let the 31-year-old escape with a bogey-six rather than a likely seven, finishing the day with a six-under-par 66.<\/p>\n

How Two \u201cLittle Thieves\u201d Saves Fitzpatrick a Shot<\/h3>\n

The 31-year-old later admitted that the intervention by the two young “thieves” probably saved him at least one stroke. Dan (Parratt), my caddie, asked<\/a>: \u2018What happens if someone goes sniffing around in the bushes and finds your ball and decides to pocket it?\u2019 I thought that was a great point because there had to be a good chance of that happening. So we called over a referee, explained the situation, and asked whether we should look for the ball then rather than risk it being taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took us over to the crowd where we reckoned my ball would have landed. A few people there said they\u2019d seen two young boys dive into the bushes and come out grinning with a golf ball. So we decided the balance of probability was that it was my ball, and that I would take a drop in that spot when we got back. I made a six but if I\u2019d had to play my provisional ball it could have been worse. So those two little thieves who made off with my ball probably saved me a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2022 US Open champion struggled in the first half of the season but has ended it strongly. His T4 finishes at the Open Championship<\/a> and Scottish Open boosted his rankings for the Ryder Cup<\/a>. The 31-year-old will travel to Bethpage as one of Europe\u2019s in-form players.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: \u00a9 Allison Lawhon-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Fitzpatrick has admitted that he received a helping hand from “two little thieves” who stole his ball at the BMW PGA Championship. The Englishman found himself in a bizarre situation on the 18th hole during the final round at Wentworth, where he carded a six-under-par 66 to stay in contention as the tournament concluded. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5425,"featured_media":436736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,19],"tags":[8178,8143,180,234,235,71],"class_list":["post-436731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-pga","tag-bmw-pga-championship","tag-genesis-scottish-open","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-ryder-cup","tag-the-open","tag-us-open"],"modified_by":"Ajayi Segun","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436731"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436737,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436731\/revisions\/436737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}