Matt Fitzpatrick has just had one of the wildest months of his career. A week earlier at THE PLAYERS Championship, he missed a playoff by one shot after a final-hole bogey. Now, he has won the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course, ending a three-year drought. Yet even after the win, Fitzpatrick believes the Masters is a ‘different kind of beast’ that requires more than momentum to conquer.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m probably going to win [the 2026 Masters], yeah,” Matt Fitzpatrick laughed before sharing the reality.

“No, no. Yeah, I mean, I’m obviously very confident in my game right now. But what it takes to win a major is very different from what it takes to win on the PGA TOUR, in my opinion. Particularly the Masters, there’s extra pressure on the Masters, no matter who you are. You know, it just has that standing above all the other events, as well as the majors.”

The field for any major is already challenging due to rigorous qualification criteria designed to ensure only the world’s top players are present. For example, in 2026, major fields will be refined to emphasize only recent winners and top-tier performers from all around the world. The invitation is usually offered to fewer than 100 players, the smallest of all the majors.

Now add the prestige and history associated with the elusive ‘Green Jacket’ and playing at the famous Amen Corner, and the pressure gets multiplied. And if anything, history shows that even the hottest players can lose their way in the Georgia pines.

A red-hot Greg Norman arrived here as the most dominant player, and leading by six strokes on Sunday, before a legendary collapse resulted in a five-shot loss in 1996. Rory McIlroy once had a four-shot lead going into the final round in 2011 before a sad back-nine 43 led him to T15. Jordan Spieth also saw something similar when a five-shot lead vanished at the 12th hole in 2016.

But Fitzpatrick can change that narrative.

Coming into the 2026 season, he has improved his game with every passing tournament. He finished ninth in Phoenix and played very well at Pebble Beach, too. But the heartbreak at TPC Sawgrass actually gave him the best antidote to succeed. He learned from that final hole bogey and arrived at Innisbrook ready.

After opening with a 68, Fitzpatrick followed that with a 69 and a 68 and entered the final round trailing Sungjae Im by three strokes. And while leader Sungjae Im faltered with a front-nine 40, Fitzpatrick reeled off 11 straight pars after his early birdie on the 3rd hole to remain in contention.

Then he drained a massive 30-footer for birdie on the par-3 15th to take the lead. And finally, on the 18th, he smashed a 303-yard drive to the center of the fairway and stuck a wedge to 14 feet to win the tournament by one shot over David Lipsky.

That’s bound to give him some confidence heading into the Masters, but he still has plenty of work to do on his short game if he wants to add another major after his 2022 U.S. Open.

“The stuff that I still want to work on. I’m coming away from this week, obviously I won, delighted with where my game’s at, but there’s stuff I want to improve. I want to make sure that I’m ready for when I get to Augusta to be ready to play and ready that Thursday morning. So, yeah, I’m really looking forward to that week,” Fitzpatrick said. “Obviously still two weeks away, so time to prepare and get ready, and as well as rest and recover and just be in the best shape as possible, yeah.”

Now, if the 31-year-old can maintain this momentum and win at Augusta, he will enter rare territory. Only one other player in recent times has won the Masters immediately after winning the Valspar Championship: Jordan Spieth in 2015.

Fitzpatrick is hopeful of making that list. But beyond that, his victory will remain impressive due to the frustrating environment of the final round.

Overcoming the ‘glacial’ pace of play controversy

Fitzpatrick is known as a vocal critic of slow play, and his victory at Innisbrook came after overcoming that same problem. Adrien Dumont de Chassart was playing at a glacial pace. The Englishman who has called slow play ‘appalling’ and ‘pathetic’ for many years eventually spoke to a rules official to get some urgent help.

The trouble reached its peak on the par-five 11th hole when Dumont de Chassart took nearly three minutes to hit a second shot after hitting into the trees, eventually carding a triple-bogey 8. The delay was so significant that Fitzpatrick spoke to a rules official, leading to an official warning for his partner.

“That was really frustrating. It was slow today. I felt like there was a lot of stop-start–yeah, just, you know, just not ready. When you’re not ready to play a golf shot, it gets frustrating after a while… It definitely knocked me out of rhythm. I felt like for the next two, three holes. I was kind of chasing my tail, because I’m trying to speed up and trying to keep us or get back in position, and at the same time you’re obviously trying to win a golf tournament,” Fitzpatrick remarked.

And it’s not Fitzpatrick who showed frustration with this slow play.

“He is a little perturbed with his playing partner’s pace of play. It is glacial, to be kind,” NBC analyst John Wood said.

Even so, he still has a sweet memory to carry with him.