Last month, they captained two-time winners of the European Ryder Cup Luke Donald invited 15 future players on a scouting trip to Adare Manor, the Irish resort that will host the 2027 Ryder Cup.
Among those 15 top European talents were two brothers: Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick.
The Fitzpatricks are already familiar names to most golf fans. Matt won the 2022 US Open and then reached the world ranking this year with three PGA Tour wins.
Matt took one of those wins, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, with his brother and partner Alex. The victory instantly won Alex a PGA Tour paper, and did not lose the opportunity. The younger Fitzpatrick excelled on Tour for the rest of the year, adding five more top-10s, including a T4 at the Tour Championship.
To qualify for the Tour Championship, Alex earned a spot in all four majors in 2027. There’s no doubt he’d love to join Matt as a major champion (the 2027 Open at St. Andrews would be fitting), but he has an even bigger goal in mind for next year.
On Wednesday at the 2026 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, played at the Old Course at St. Andrews and two other nearby courses, the Fitzpatrick brothers made it clear what was at the top of their golf priority list next year: playing the Ryder Cup together.
Matt Fitzpatrick on playing Ryder Cup with brother Alex: “It would be as good as it gets”
The Fitzpatrick brothers are both playing at this week’s Dunhill Links in St. Andrews, as well as the mother and father, who are teaming with their children in the pro-am event.
During his press conference on Wednesday in St. Andrews, Alex was asked about the recent Adare Manor Ryder Cup scouting trip, and he had only positive things to say about the experience.
“Yes, incredible. It’s not often that you get to be with some of the best players, and obviously the place was incredible. I had heard so many great things about Adare. I had seen pictures of the golf course, but seeing and being there was incredible. We had a lot of fun,” said Fitzpatrick. “It’s something I hope I’ll keep in mind come September next year.”
Although Alex, 27, has been a professional for many years, he has never made a European Ryder Cup team. Matt, on the other hand, has been a part of four of the last five European teams, dating back to 2016. But after a stellar season that put him firmly in the conversation, Alex is “hungry” to finally make the team in 2027.
“That’s probably the one thing next year I want to do more than anything. I think having that experience makes you hungry to be on that team,” Alex said Wednesday. “That’s the goal, just keep doing the same things I did and I hope it leads to being in Adare. We’ll see.”
But in the end, the Fitzpatrick brothers revealed an even bigger, albeit related, goal they have for next year: making the Ryder Cup team together and being paired with each other at Adare Manor.
“Yes, I couldn’t do better. I feel, I try to achieve a lot in the game, and I think it would be the best. To win a PGA Tour event together, it is quite high on the list, but to be able to play Ryder Cup and to be able to have the chance to win the Ryder Cup together would be, yes, it would be quite incredible,” Matte said incredible.
While the Ryder Cup is incredibly important to golf professionals, especially Europeans, you would be hard-pressed to find many who would rank it above winning the major championships.
But Matt made it clear that winning the Ryder Cup with Alex would be more desirable than winning another major, and Alex quickly followed suit.
“Yeah, I haven’t been lucky enough to win a major, so I don’t know what it felt like, but it’s at the top of the list,” said Alex of the opportunity to play the Ryder Cup with his brother. “Make a decent case for ourselves – yes, it’s definitely at the top of the list.”
But with 12 months between now and the start of the 2027 Ryder Cup, a lot has to go right for both Fitzpatrick brothers to make it to Adare Manor.
Matt is already a lock for the team as long as he stays healthy. It is currently ranked 4th in the Official World Golf Rankingbetter than any European player other than Rory McIlroy. And is 1st in the official classification of the European Ryder Cup. The top 6 players from that ranking will automatically qualify for the team.
Alex’s Ryder Cup outlook, however, is not so good. He is currently ranked 57th in the OWGR and comes to 31st in the European team rankings. He will need a very strong season next year to break into the top 6, although he will have many opportunities to earn valuable points in a full season on the PGA Tour.
Of course, Alex doesn’t need to climb all the way to the top to make the team. Given his natural chemistry with Matt, Alex would be an obvious choice of captain for the European team.
The fact that Donald, the European captain, invited him on the Adare Manor scouting trip is certainly a good sign for his chances of making the team. But he will still need to maintain his current form in the coming months to finally convince Donald to select him.
