Alex Fitzpatrick quickly discovered how dramatically life can change after winning on the PGA Tour. While celebrating his Zurich Classic pairs victory alongside his older brother, world No. 4 Matt Fitzpatrick, Alex received an unexpected congratulations from basketball legend Michael Jordan at a golf club north of Palm Beach, Florida.
“I look over and it’s Michael Jordan,” Fitzpatrick says. “I’m like ‘wow’, it’s insane.”
“He walks past the table. He’s got a bag full of cigars, t-shirt untucked, he looks like the coolest person ever.”
“He walked past me, saw Gary Woodland, who won the previous week, and was like ‘wow, it’s a room of winners in here’. That was the coolest thing ever.”
“When I started to really love basketball, I watched videos of him. I love his shoes. I loved everything about him. It was surreal having that moment.”
“I’m not someone who gets starstruck but Michael Jordan, having him say stuff to me, it was a different world.”
That world now appears to be one Fitzpatrick is increasingly comfortable inhabiting. Alongside his maiden DP World Tour victory at the Indian Open in March, he has recorded five top-10 finishes in 13 PGA Tour starts.
Some critics questioned whether Fitzpatrick deserved the two-year tour card he received after winning the Zurich Classic in April. His performances in 2026, however, have strengthened his case for competing alongside the world’s best golfers.
Fitzpatrick is so confident in his place among the elite that he has not relied heavily on Matt for advice.
“The truth is, we haven’t spoken that much about a lot of stuff. I’ve picked his brain once this year, maybe twice,” he says.
“I feel comfortable out here and comfortable around the group of people playing on this tour.”
“I’ve been doing this a long time, I’ve been playing golf since I was four.”
“I haven’t asked him a lot of questions about how things work, maybe how to get better with certain things.”
“He’s always someone I can text or call but he’s still my brother and that’s more important than the golf side.”
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