Matt Fitzpatrick is in a groove right now.
A strong end to last season was followed by a fantastic performance at the Ryder Cup, and now he's collected a victory at the Valspar Championship after a tough 72nd-hole loss at the 2026 Players Championship.
It's a return to form for the 2022 U.S. Open champion, an uptick in part the product of joining forces with No. 1-ranked coach Mark Blackburn. The pair linked up last season and set about making some clever changes to the Englishman's swing — the signs of which you can spot before he even hits the ball.
The Fix
As Blackburn explained here and more recently on Smylie Kaufman's show: Fitzpatrick has a really big wingspan for his height. His longer arms mean he has a tendency to stand too far away from the ball, which means he can swing too far around his body — good for drives, less so for irons.
So Blackburn and Fitzpatrick worked on pulling his arms closer to his body at setup to steepen his iron swing, which helps his swing move more up-and-down, and less around.
"We retracted his arms at address to manage his swing radius more effectively, as his arms are so long."
"Yeah, we've just been working on the same stuff I've been working on all year, really," Fitzpatrick said at Valspar. "Just more retraction in my approach play, in my shoulders."
The takeaway for you
Of course, knowing what you want to do is one thing; understanding how to actually do it is another.
Which brings us to the point of this article. Notice how, as Fitzpatrick walks into the ball, he rolls his shoulders back. This keeps his shoulders back and his arms closer to his body.
The takeaway for the rest of us isn't to copy Fitzpatrick exactly. It's learning the lesson: implementing the stuff you're working on into your pre-shot routine. Åberg does it, too. Little cues that reinforce what you're trying to do, right before you want to do it most.