Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fitzpatrick shows his Ryder Cup credentials

Matt Fitzpatrick showed his worth as a possible Ryder Cup debutant at Archerfield yesterday.
Matt Fitzpatrick showed his worth as a possible Ryder Cup debutant at Archerfield yesterday.

If Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke’s deputy Thomas Bjorn needed any further testimonials to Matt Fitzpatrick’s credentials to go to Hazeltine next month, he got plenty during yesterday’s Aberdeen Asset Management Paul Lawrie Matchplay.

In truth, the 21-year-old’s growing reputation proceeds him and Bjorn knew all about him. But it can’t have done any harm whatsoever for the young Yorkshireman to have shot six birdies and no bogeys in defeating the Dane towering over him 4 and 3 in yetserday’s first round.

“I guess my career path was supposed to going like this to start with,” said Fitzpatrick, mimicking a horizontal line, “When in fact it’s going like this,” he added, pointing upwards.

However the youngster has been flailing a little in the final straight before reaching the Ryder Cup team and was in need of more encouragement like yesterday.

“It’s what I’ve been saying all along, ” he said. “Just hole some putts, and I didn;t miss one out there today, so that’s the difference.”

Fitzpatrick had been sailing into the European team before hitting the buffers with four missed cuts and his 49th place in the PGA last week, but this performance renewed his confidence.

“I’m telling everyone three of those missed cuts were by a single shot and the other (the Open) was down to the draw,” he said. “Today is a small window but I’m five-under through eight because I’m holing putts.

“Maybe it was because it was matchplay and I could play just a little more freely.

“If I can carry on like that the rest of the year, then I can get back to where I want to be.”

And he badly wanted to do well against Bjorn, who has taken a mentoring role with him this season – probably at Clarke’s behest.

“Thomas and I got pretty close the last few months,” he added. “He’s given me a lot of really, really good advice I’ve taken on board. He’s obviously a great player and he’s a great person to listen to and talk to about stuff.”

No 1 seed Chris Wood, who can nail down his place at Hazeltine with a good performance this week, came through 4 and 3 against Australian Brett Rumford, with Spain’s Jorge Campillo the highest seed to fall – from fifth – beaten by Marc Warren.

Meanwhile the tournament organisers have heeded warnings of high wind speeds on Saturday night and Sunday morning and changed the tournament timetable.

The second round and the last 16 will be played today, the quarter-finals and semi-final  on Saturday leaving Sunday afternoon free for the 18-hole final.