PGA Championship leader Matt Fitzpatrick takes aim at Bryson DeChambeau: 'He's just taking the skill out of it'

Matt Fitzpatrick produced an inspired short-game performance to top the halfway leaderboard here at the BMW PGA Championship, before taking aim at the long-game revolution instigated by Bryson DeChambeau. “It’s making a bit of a mockery of golf,” he said, while calling on the game’s governing bodies to introduce regulations to ensure the ball cannot travel so far.

It is fair to say that the amicable young Englishman did not hold back when asked about DeChambeau’s 360-plus yard drives that have become the central talking point in the sport. At the US Open three weeks’ ago, the American overpowered Winged Foot to cruise to his first major and at this week’s PGA Tour event in Las Vegas - the Shiners Open - he has all but bust the house again with a 59 in the pro-am and a 62 in the first round.

On the 381-yard seventh at TPC Summerlin, the world No 6 became the first player ever to drive the green in competition. Incredible to some, depressing to others.

“I’m fed up with hearing about it, fed up with reading about it, fed up with everyone talking about it,” Fitzpatrick said. “I'm biased because I'm not quite the longest, and Winged Foot, fair play to him, he won and shot 6-under. But the fairways were tight as hell, and I drove it brilliantly… he's in the rough and miles up and he's just hitting wedges everywhere.

“I looked at ShotTracker yesterday, some of the places he hit it, and he's cutting corners… when he's on, there's no point, is there? It doesn't matter if I play my best, he's going to be 50 yards in front of me off the tee, and you know, the only thing I can compete with him is putting. And that's just ridiculous.”

DeChambeau has been installed as the favourite for next month’s Masters and it will be intriguing to see if he bash the rest into submission and again and if he does, if the R&A and US Golf Association finally make good on their suggestion to rollback the golf ball.

“I really hope they do,” Fitzpatrick, the world No 20,  said. “In my opinion, it's not a skill to hit the ball a long way. I could put on 40 pounds and see a biomechanist and I could gain 40 yards; that's a fact. But the skill is to hit the ball straight. That's the skill. He's just taking the skill out of it. I'm sure lots will disagree. It's just daft.”

At 5ft 8lb and 11st, Fitzpatrick declared he would not be emulating DeChambeau and bulking up, because “It’s not good for the back”. “He'll probably tell me otherwise… but your back wasn’t made to rotate as much as we do,” he added. “All that stuff will take its toll eventually.”

The 26-year-old clearly has a beef, but, in fairness, his mood had not been helped by a double-bogey on his last hole (the eighth) when finding the water with an eight-iron on the eighth. After holing out from the bunker on the third for a birdied and then watching his chip and run drop for  an eagle on the fourth - "I don't think I've had back-to-back chip-ins since I was 10” - he needed a birdie on that par four for a course-record equalling 62.

As it was, Fitzpatrick had to content with a 65  to sit alongside Shane Lowry on 12-under. The Open champion also shot a 65 and the pair are a shot clear of another Englishman Tyrrell Hatton (67), with France’s Victor Perez (66) two further back in fourth.