Sheffield's Matt Fitzpatrick believes his share of seventh place in the Masters represents a massive step forward in his already impressive career.
Fitzpatrick carded a closing 67 at Augusta National on Sunday, with four birdies in the last five holes seeing the 21-year-old record the joint lowest score of the day and achieve his first top-10 finish in a major.
The former US Amateur champion missed the cut by a shot on his debut at Augusta National in 2014, but has enjoyed a meteoric rise sin ce turning professional and gaining his European Tour card via the qualifying school.
Fitzpatrick led from start to finish to win the British Masters at Woburn last October and also finished seventh in the WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai, while his performance at the Masters lifted him to a career-high 39th in the world.
"It's definitely a big step forward," Fitzpatrick said. "It's a momentum boost coming into the rest of the season. It's the first major of the season and really the start of the year for everyone.
" I think when I came as an amateur I didn't have any expectations. Mainly it was to make the cut. This week I've managed to make the cut but I just think it's different. I think every shot really does count.
"As an amateur when I played it didn't really matter too much if I missed the cut. It was a great experience for me (in 2014) and I think I wouldn't have done as well as I did this year without that."
At just under 5ft 10in and with a slender frame, there had been concerns that Fitzpatrick did not hit the ball far enough to succeed in the professional game.
But a relative lack of distance did not prevent the former world number one amateur from leading the greens in regulation statistics at an impressive 75 per cent.
"What was really funny was that Sean Foley (a former coach to Tiger Woods) came over to me on the range the other day and was sort of joking around, saying a lot of guys don't know if I hit it long enough to compete," Fitzpatrick added. "And I was leading the greens in reg after the first two rounds.
"He was laughing at that and he was pretty supportive. I think that certainly I played well enough (on Sunday) to shoot 67. I'm not trying to prove a point, but it maybe just helps me put my mind at rest if I was worried if I belong."
Source: PA
