Masters 2023: US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick plays down Augusta chances

Matt Fitzpatrick finished joint 14th at the Masters in 2022

US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick has jokingly suggested his Masters hopes are restricted to "making a cut" after an injury-hit start to the season.

The Englishman, 28, began the year strongly finishing joint seventh at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

However, he has missed several cuts and struggled for form since suffering a neck injury in late January.

"I've lost a lot of ground and definitely regressed quite a lot," Fitzpatrick said.

"Making a cut would be a good start probably. I've done a little bit of work on myself to try and kind of say, well, it's early in the season.

"This is where I'm at with my game. My expectations have got to match that. We're back to the bottom again and just slowly trying to build it back up. Slowly getting there, but it's just going to take time."

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It has been a frustrating beginning to the year for Fitzpatrick whose best finish at Augusta National was a tie for seventh in 2016, in only the second of his eight appearances at the tournament.

The world number 15 missed the cut at the Players Championship and Valspar Championship in March and was also unable to advance to the knockout stages of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play Championship.

"All of a sudden, the work I had done in the off-season just became non-existent," added Fitzpatrick who gets under way at 18:24 BST on Thursday in a group that also contains two-time major winner Collin Morikawa and his fellow American Will Zalatoris.

"I definitely feel better physically. I definitely feel better mentally. I feel like my game is kind of slowly getting there, but at the same time I'm still in, effectively, a rebuild phase of getting stronger and swinging it better."