Matt Fitzpatrick has embarked on a swing change with his coach Mark Blackburn over the past 12 months.

Fitzpatrick linked up with Blackburn immediately after The Masters last year after a really poor run of form.

And Blackburn obviously worked wonders with the Englishman, who finished the season off in fine form and made his way onto the European Ryder Cup team as a result.

Fitzpatrick has begun the 2026 PGA Tour season in fine form, with a runner-up finish, one top-10 and two top-25s in six events so far.

It’s fair to say that Fitzpatrick could have won The Players, if he had just a little bit more luck down the stretch on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass.

He has already proven that he can win the very biggest tournaments, after he reigned supreme at the U.S. Open in 2022.

However, he will now be hoping to jump up to the next level, and the hope is that with his ability to cut his irons now rather than draw them, he’ll be able to do exactly that.

What Matt Fitzpatrick tipped to get even better after swing change

Fitzpatrick was very keen to find a way of controlling his iron shots better, and Blackburn has helped him do that by transforming the shot-shape that he hits.

Blackburn spoke to Dan Rapaport on The Dan on Golf Show, and responded when asked about the changes Fitzpatrick has made to his swing.

“He spent a lot of time developing a lot of speed, and speed is definitely a huge byproduct of moving kind of laterally in the golf swing, and very much vertically,“ Blackburn explained.

“And that produces massive speed, a bit more of a draw, but can be very challenging for producing really crisp, controlled, cut iron shots, the shot that he wanted.

“He was almost trying to use a technique for a high long iron, or a massive smash driver.

“It’s not gonna be so conducive for a cut, you know, nine or eight-iron.

“And so we kind of added in a little less of him moving down the target line, a little bit more rotational, which he did probably inherently as a kid, and then when he chased speed, his swing kind of changed a little bit.

“So all we’ve done is trying to take the pieces he used for distance, but then marry them up, harmonise a little bit more with his lower body, creating a bit more rotation.

“Some people might call that torque, so it’s easier to get the club travelling outside to in and across the ball, much easier for him to get his body open through the hip, which now opens the club face to the path, and he produces a very controlled cut.“

What Matt Fitzpatrick does at majors is ‘unusual’ according to his coach

“He’s very straight. He hits it a long way, he’s got precision, and he’s just learning to use all of those things.

“So, to me, I think that his ceiling, he’s levelling up, so to speak, and I think he’s gonna continue to get better and better, and he doesn’t get stage fright.

“He’s very stoic. Like, he is very calm. The Matt I deal with on the Monday is the same Matt I’m dealing with on a Sunday in a warm-up at a major.

“That’s kind of unusual with players.

“We’re still talking about Sheffield United or the Premier League, or how bad Liverpool are. We have a good joke. The team’s very sarcastic.

“So, he’s got a really great head on his shoulders. Yeah, I think that he’s got a lot of intangibles that make for elite golf.“

A fade always lands softer than a draw so players are able to control their distances better by shaping their irons left to right, or right to left if they are left-handed.

Given the firmness of the greens at the vast majority of the biggest tournaments on the PGA Tour, the change was one that Fitzpatrick clearly felt was a crucial one to make.