{"id":438091,"date":"2026-04-20T04:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T04:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=438091"},"modified":"2026-04-20T04:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T04:55:08","slug":"rbc-heritage-fitzpatrick-scheffler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/rbc-heritage-fitzpatrick-scheffler\/","title":{"rendered":"RBC Heritage Playoff Dog Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 PGA Tour season has been a highlight to say the least, coming off the Masters Tournament where Rory McIlroy joined historic company in a back-to-back victory. Following that illustrious weekend in Augusta,<\/a> came the RBC Heritage and it lived up to its hype by all means. Coming down to a playoff battle between two of the top names in the sport, ultimately Matt Fitzpatrick walked away victorious Sunday evening taking down a World No. 1. Representing England in great fashion, Fitzpatrick put on a display of great skill and confidence to get the job done when it mattered most.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Confidence Is Key\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Confidence is a big part of any career within sports, yet that factor came up even bigger at the RBC Heritage. Now winning for the second time this Tour season, Fitzpatrick showcased he has much in the tank left. The first two rounds for the 31-year-old were completely ideal, only netting one bogey for 15 birdies. Jumping off to a hot start was key for Fitzpatrick to stay not only in the mix, but ahead of competition<\/a> as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of grit,\u201d Fitzpatrick said when speaking on what it took to secure a playoff win.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once coming to this tournament as a kid and dreaming of hoisting a trophy, Fitzpatrick can now say he\u2019s done it twice. Harbour Town became a place of comfort early for the veteran and it paid off in the long run.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt means the world,\u201d he said.<\/a> \u201cThis is a tournament I wanted to win growing up more than any of the majors before I understood more about the game. To go toe-to-toe with Scottie and get it over the line is special.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Taking Down Top Dog\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fitzpatrick started with a three-shot lead and came away with a birdie at two of the opening three holes.\u00a0 It was then, Si Woo Kim birdied the par-5 15th to jump within two shots, then Scottie Scheffler came on the scene with a birdie of his own. Now it was a clear finish between Scheffler and Fitzpatrick, yet both managed to finish 18-under.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Having playoff experience in which the Englishman was able to defeat Jordan Spieth three years ago, similar results soon began to resurface.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“This was one of those weeks where anytime Fitzy needed something to happen, he made something happen,” said Scheffler. “<\/a>He definitely earned the win, and he just played great golf.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The two went through two shots at the 18th in the playoffs, after Fitzpatrick put up a bogey in the first run prompting a re-run. Scheffler pushed his approach shot to the right, allowing Fitzpatrick room to capitalize and eventually hit one of the top shots in the entire weekend. A 4-iron to 13 feet, and rolled in the birdie for the win.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite funny that the playoff was just going to keep playing on 18. I was thinking it was going difficult in a way to separate ourselves because it\u2019s such a difficult hole,\u201d Fitzpatrick said.<\/a> \u201cTo do it how I did was special.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now with four career wins on Tour, a win this weekend could be a key accelerant in more to come in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a9 Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 PGA Tour season has been a highlight to say the least, coming off the Masters Tournament where Rory McIlroy joined historic company in a back-to-back victory. Following that illustrious weekend in Augusta, came the RBC Heritage and it lived up to its hype by all means. Coming down to a playoff battle between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5427,"featured_media":438093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_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":[15,246,19],"tags":[180,114,154],"class_list":["post-438091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-rbc-heritage","tag-scottie-scheffler"],"modified_by":"Orlando Fuller","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438091","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\/5427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438096,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438091\/revisions\/438096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}