Matt Fitzpatrick: Former US Open winner on his love for football and getting back to his golfing best

The other constant has been his love of football. This conversation began with Fitzpatrick seeking contact details for a tactical expert who had appeared on the BBC Sport website.

"People think its a joke but I love football way more than golf," Fitzpatrick smiled. "I'm obsessed with football. It's brilliant for me.

"I love supporting Sheffield United, over here in the States they show every game I could wish to see, which is amazing."

Fitzpatrick has visited Premier League side Brentford and spoken face-to-face with the performance team at champions Liverpool to glean insights. His voice lights up while recalling the people he met and the chats that followed.

He was like a sponge absorbing information. "How they use data, how culture is so important," he said. "Just fascinating.

"Finding little things that maybe we could take into golf - I feel like we've taken a lot from it."

But not just golf. He claims there could come a day when he might switch sports.

"I don't know when I'll ever get time to do this, but I'd love to work in football if the opportunity ever arose in some way, shape or form," Fitzpatrick said.

"That's extremely wishful thinking, but I just find it so interesting to be part of. I love reading about it and everything about it."

More pressing is a golf career that is back on the up. Along with trying to make it to East Lake for the Tour Championship, he wants to retain his place in Europe's Ryder Cup team for next month's trophy defence at Bethpage in New York.

"It is nice to play well at the crunch time; the play-offs and the Ryder Cup," Fitzpatrick said. "To be part of that would be very special again."

He has played three Ryder Cups but his record of only one win in eight matches is a frustration, and poor reflection of the talents of someone with 10 tournament wins in his professional career.

"Despite my record I still want to be part of it to give myself a chance to improve on it," he said.

If he makes Luke Donald's team, Fitzpatrick will bring plenty of perspective to the European team.

"In the last 15 months there's been an extra effort to try and be a little bit more forgiving to myself and understanding my own psychology really," he admitted.

"My biggest thing I would take away from the slump is catching things earlier. I can't afford to get to that stage again.

"It was a tough time for me and the problem was it went on for so long. You can't afford to be behind the eight ball and you need to catch those things as early as you can, and turn them round as quickly as you can."

Spoken like a golfer who might one day deliver half-time team talks.

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