The four-iron that sealed Matt Fitzpatrick's second RBC Heritage title has been celebrated as one of the shots of the PGA Tour season so far. Analyst Trevor Immelman called it the best of the year. Fitzpatrick himself, asked about it in his champion's press conference, took the air out of the whole thing in a single sentence.
"I'll be honest, I pulled it a little bit," Fitzpatrick said when asked what had gone through his mind as the ball left the clubface on the second playoff tee at Harbour Town.
A follow-up question gave him the chance to take it back. He declined.
"Ruin the story, yeah," he said, laughing. "Okay, we... alright."
The shot itself, a 204-yard approach from the 18th fairway back into a stiffening wind, finished about 10 feet from the pin. Fitzpatrick and his caddie Dan had aimed, in his telling, at the right edge of the green - using the commentary booth behind the putting surface as a reference - and the ball drew onto the green line he wanted, which is precisely why the outcome matched the intent even if the start line did not.
"We had the commentary booth in the background, that was like our target," Fitzpatrick explained. "So that was probably right half of the green, you know, right edge maybe. But it was such a great number for four-iron and it's the only round all week we've had four-iron in the bag... great planning from Dan. Just so aware of what's going on with the wind even before we tee off and stuff."
The self-deprecating honesty is on brand for Fitzpatrick. The 2022 US Open champion has long been unusually willing to point at his own imperfections in press rooms, a trait that sits alongside one of the more rigorous practice and statistics routines in the men's game. The gap between his intended target and where the ball went is exactly the kind of small detail a player like Fitzpatrick notices after a shot he has just convinced himself was excellent.
The win gave Fitzpatrick his second Harbour Town title and his fourth PGA Tour victory. He became only the second player this season - alongside Chris Gotterup - to record multiple wins on tour. The four-iron that he admits he pulled will nevertheless feature in every highlight package of the week, and Fitzpatrick himself made the point that the previous approach shot in regulation, which he had played to the same green, had come off the club almost identically.
"After the one in regulation, I basically hit it as well as I could," he said. "And then in the fairway it was the same story. I knew I could just hit it."
Fitzpatrick also addressed the atmosphere of the closing holes - a heavily pro-Scheffler crowd that had been chanting Scheffler's name noticeably on the 18th green and into the playoff. He declined to frame it as anything more than theatre.
"It's hard to ignore the chanting going on," Fitzpatrick said. "Second time for you in a month probably. Are you - do you accept it? Was it okay? Was it not - I mean I know you come to expect it, but did it get out of line? No."
The honest winner is, in the end, the winner. Fitzpatrick's acknowledgement that his start line drifted does not diminish the shot so much as redirect the credit: a properly calibrated shape, a trusted caddie, a well-chosen target, and the compensating grace that separates tour players from the rest of the range.
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*Originally published on [Golf News Global](https://golfnews.global/article/fitzpatricks-honest-admission-i-pulled-it-a-little-bit-on-the-winning-four-iron-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
