At first, Matthew Fitzpatrick said, the break from golf was welcome. He had no choice, really. The weather in England after the coronavirus pandemic shut down the PGA Tour was lousy. And golf courses were not open anyway.
Eventually, Fitzpatrick decided he needed to do something. So he constructed a small net that he could hit balls into behind his residence in Sheffield, England, hoping to keep some semblance of a golf swing as he waited for the restrictions to be lifted.
It turned out to be a long wait.
"Obviously, it wasn't very fulfilling,'' said Fitzpatrick, 25, who is ranked 25th in the world and looking forward to the PGA Tour's return in a few weeks.