PGA Tour star disagrees with Ryder Cup teammates after Open Championship complaint

Despite two of his Ryder Cup companions, Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton, airing grievances about the Open Championship 's course set-up this week, Matthew Fitzpatrick claims it was 'fair'.

It has been a grueling week on Scotland's west coast, with violent winds and torrents of rain wreaking havoc at the Royal Troon. On Saturday afternoon, the conditions were the most formidable, putting the frontrunners through their paces during their third round.

Consequently, the inclement weather resulted in Lowry plummeting down the leaderboard. After leading by two shots going into the weekend, his score on moving day was disappointingly six-over-par 77, making his total one-under not enough to stay in the hunt.

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Lowry later took issue with the positioning of the tee boxes on the back nine, particularly as the players had to face strong headwinds while closing out their rounds. The challenge was blatant for the Irishman at the 17th hole where he had to resort to a driver to land his ball onto the par-three green.

He recounted his difficult experience in a Saturday evening conversation: "Look, I don't really know what to say. It was a grind. It wasn't much fun," and further described some unnerving shots, "Driver, driver into 15. 16 playing ridiculously long. Driver into 17. Then you're standing on the 18th tee wondering if you can actually hit the fairway, if you can reach the fairway, and it's 230 yards to the fairway.

"Bear in mind my driver pitched about 220 yards on the 17th hole. So, yeah, it's not much fun out there. It's obviously very difficult. But you'd have to question why there wasn't a couple of tees put forward today, to be honest. I think 15 and 17 - like 15 is 500 yards playing into that wind."

His Ryder Cup teammate Hatton echoed his sentiments earlier in the week, after missing the cut following a disappointing second round. But, on the other hand, Fitzpatrick had no complaints and even expressed sympathy for the RandA as he wrapped up his week on Sunday.

"I think this has been a fantastically fair test this week," he said. "I don't know whether to feel sorry for the R&A about yesterday afternoon or whether they did get it wrong, I genuinely don't know. I think I was sat in my chair in my living room in the warmth thinking I hit eight-iron on 13 and these boys are hitting three-wood. So it was quite a difference. Aside from that, I think it's been a really good test."

Fitzpatrick didn't have his best game in Scotland this week, finishing the event at nine-over-par after a one-over 72 in the final round. He will now shift his focus to the Olympic Games in Paris, where he will represent Great Britain alongside Tommy Fleetwood at Le Golf National in August.