Matt Fitzpatrick landed his strategy shot on the third playoff gap a few foot away from the pin, and his tap-in birdie allowed him to defeat Jordan Spieth and win the RBC Heritage on Sunday night in Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Playing the par-4 18th gap at Harbour Town Golf Links for the second time within the playoff, the Englishman lined up his second shot straight on the pin and watched it hop and roll straight on the cup, simply shy of a hole-out. Spieth couldn’t get shut on his strategy and missed an extended birdie putt that may have prolonged the playoff.

It was Fitzpatrick’s first win since his main breakthrough finally 12 months’s U.S. Open and simply his second skilled win on American soil general. He will transfer from No. 16 to No. 8 within the Official World Golf Ranking.

Fitzpatrick relished the victory at a event he and his household attended throughout holidays to the United States when he was younger.

“Any golf tournament, you know, other than the majors, of course, there isn’t a higher one on my list than to win this one, and that’s the truth,” Fitzpatrick mentioned. “My family can tell you that, and my friends can tell you the same thing. This place is just a special place for me, and it means the world to have won it.”

Spieth had birdie putts to win the playoff on the primary two holes -- beginning at No. 18, then on the par-3 seventeenth -- and each missed by the slimmest margins.

“I felt like Jordan played really well today,” Fitzpatrick mentioned. “Didn’t really hit many bad shots, if any. I think in the playoff, I felt every putt he hit was going to go in.”

Spieth was making an attempt to defend his Heritage title from final 12 months, when he received with a par on the primary gap of a playoff with Patrick Cantlay.

🏆 @MattFitz94 has received @RBC_Heritage!

It's Fitzpatrick's second PGA TOUR win and ninth worldwide. pic.twitter.com/IDgSCEE8Wt

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 16, 2023

“I don’t think I would have done anything differently,” Spieth mentioned. “I got stuck in between clubs twice and hit a really nice one the first time on 18 and I just flew it too far the second time.”

After firing an 8-under 63 on Saturday to take the 54-hole lead, Fitzpatrick closed with a 68 whereas taking part in with Spieth and Cantlay within the last threesome. Spieth held the outright lead through the again 9 and completed with a 66, becoming a member of Fitzpatrick at 17-under 267. Cantlay additionally threatened earlier than signing for a 68 and ending one again.

“Someone was going to make a birdie,” Spieth mentioned. “It wasn’t going to be a bogey to lose that playoff the way that we were both playing today. (Fitzpatrick) just did what he needed to do on 15 in, when it had been kind of me and Patrick for a little while there.”

Cantlay and Spieth had been tied for the lead at 16 beneath after they stepped to the tee on the par-4 thirteenth gap. That gap marked a two-shot swing in Spieth’s favor: While Cantlay missed the inexperienced and wound up two-putting for bogey, Spieth dialed in his strategy to three 1/2 ft of the cup for a simple birdie.

Both Spieth and Cantlay missed the inexperienced on the par-3 14th and confronted a tough chip onto a downhill-sloping inexperienced. While Spieth’s rolled to the sting of the inexperienced, Cantlay’s dribbled additional, coming to relaxation on a picket put up that hardly stored the ball from dropping into water beneath.

Cantlay managed to chip it from that “lie” onto the inexperienced and saved bogey, whereas Spieth additionally took bogey.

“I just needed to make sure I was totally committed to what I decided to do there,” Cantlay mentioned. “I wasn’t decided until the end, but ultimately I thought that if I would have dropped it, it would have meant double bogey more than likely, and I wanted to at least give myself a chance to stay in the golf tournament and try and get it up-and-down, which I did.”

Fitzpatrick birdied Nos. 15 and 16, the latter a easy 5-footer, to drive a tie with Spieth at 17 beneath.

“I didn’t do any attacking. I just stuck to my game plan all along,” Fitzpatrick mentioned. “I didn’t change. We were hitting the same targets, same shots as we did all week.”

Cantlay birdied Nos. 15 and 18 to bounce again to 16 beneath and end third.

Xander Schauffele (66 on Sunday) completed fourth at 15 beneath. Sahith Theegala (65) and Hayden Buckley (67) tied for fifth at 14 beneath, and Brian Harman (67), South Korea’s Sungjae Im (67), Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo (68) and Australia’s Cam Davis (68) completed 13 beneath in a tie for seventh.