Matt Fitzpatrick and Ryder Cup team-mates Rory McIlroy, Robert Macintyre and Shane Lowry have been honoured by The PGA for their performances in the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open winner who finished T5 in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, was presented with the Braid Taylor Memorial Medal by PGA Captain David Scott on the eve of the tournament.
The medal was introduced in 1966 and is awarded to the PGA Member born in, or with a parent or parents born in the United Kingdom or Ireland, who finishes highest in the Open Championship.
Fitzpatrick, an Honorary PGA Member due to representing Team Europe in the Ryder Cup, achieved that at Royal Portrush by finishing tied-fourth. The performance continued a timely return to form for the 31-year-old Yorkshireman whose team of coaches include PGA Master Professionals Pete Cowen and Phil Kenyon.
He had warmed up for the Open by finishing tied-fourth in the Genesis Scottish Open and he followed up his excellent showing at Royal Portrush with two more top 10 placings in the Betfred British Masters and Omega European Masters.
In addition to claiming the Braid Taylor Memorial Medal, Fitzpatrick, and his fellow 2025 Ryder Cup team members, McIlroy, Macintyre and Lowry, won the Tooting Bec Cup for their performances at Royal Portrush.
The Tooting Bec Cup is subject to the same criteria as the Braid Taylor Memorial Medal and awarded to the PGA Member who posts the lowest score in the Open Championship.
Fitzpatrick, McIlroy, Macintyre and Lowry all carded five-under par rounds of 66 at Royal Portrush to win what is the oldest trophy the PGA Membership competes for.
It was first played for as a 36-hole stroke play competition shortly after the Association was founded in 1901 and presented by the Tooting Bec Golf Club, which hosted the first tournament.
The inaugural winner was J H Taylor, one the Association’s three founders, but sadly, Tooting Bec Golf Club no longer exists, hence the change in conditions for winning a prize that has now become a medal as opposed to a cup.
Macintyre and Lowry were also presented with their medals at Wentworth and McIlroy, who did not play in the celebrity pro-am that precedes the tournament, will receive his at a later date.
