Matthew Fitzpatrick wins French Open by three shots for fourth title of season

The 32-year-old from Sheffield led by five shots going into the final round, then spent most of it handing that advantage back. Twelve successive pars allowed Angel Hidalgo and the rest of the chasing pack to close to within two, which is not where you want to be after building that kind of cushion over a par-72 layout that has a habit of finding weaknesses. Fitzpatrick found his on the front nine. He found something else on the 13th and 15th, where birdies reopened the gap decisively. A bogey at the last was immaterial by then.

Three of Fitzpatrick's four wins this season have come on the PGA Tour — the Valspar Championship, RBC Heritage, and the Zurich Classic team event played alongside his brother Alex. That last one is a format that attracts questions about how seriously to weight it. The French Open carries no such asterisk. Le Golf National, the permanent host of the Ryder Cup when Europe plays at home, is a course that punishes lateral thinking and rewards the kind of ball-striking Fitzpatrick built his career on.

Matthieu Pavon shot a 64 on the final day, the best round in the field, to tie fourth alongside Tom Vaillant, Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra and Kristoffer Reitan. Pavon's round made the leaderboard look competitive in retrospect; it was mostly settling scores for position behind a player who, even in a scrappy final round, had enough margin to survive his own lapses.

The more interesting question now is what a season of four titles across two tours — against fields of different depths and on courses of different demands — means for how Fitzpatrick is ranked and seeded going into whatever the calendar presents next. He has not won a major. He has won consistently. Those are different arguments, and this season has supplied fresh evidence for both sides of it.