Matt Fitzpatrick plans Scottish Open Saturday surge with England World Cup showdown with Norway top of his agenda

Matt Fitzpatrick reckons England can win the World Cup and plans a Saturday surge to ensure he sees the Three Lions’ next step towards glory. The football-daft golfer has Thomas Tuchel’s team and tonight’s blockbuster quarter-final against Norway firmly on his mind. Fitzpatrick played superbly in round two to ensure a late Saturday tee-off in his bid for success at Renaissance. With England’ s last-eight game potentially finishing after midnight, the Sheffield United supporter wants another late start tomorrow so he can get a full sleep after watching the crunch in Miami. Fitzpatrick joked: “It’s the only reason I’m trying to play well! I’m not bothered about the golf!” He continued: “When we made it through, you look at the kick-off time and you’re like: Right okay, I need to make sure I play well and get a late tee-time on Sunday. “I do [fancy England to go all the way]. I really like the manager. I think he’s awesome, a really great coach and, obviously, the players are as talented as any other team. “I definitely feel like he picked the squad with a certain fit in mind, I think, for more knockout football as opposed to the group stages and, obviously, so far, so good. “The people that were shouting for Jude Bellingham to be left at home, I don’t know what they do for a living, but, yeah, it’s been just a really exciting period and I think we’ve done really well. “It’s a very exciting period of sport for this country. Hopefully, I have a good weekend on top of it myself. Listen, I’d rather win the tournament, but it’s a great period of sport in the UK, Wimbledon, the World Cup.” Fitzpatrick, of course, famously caught a plane from the Renaissance straight after a Sunday play-off at the 2021 Scottish Open to see England face Italy in the Final of the Euros at Wembley. He lost out to Min Woo Lee on the course and it was no better on the park as Gareth Southgate’s men were downed on penalties. Fitzpatrick’s won't be seeing Tuchel’s side in person next weekend at the New York showpiece if he's in Claret Jug contention, although he laughed: “But it depends on how early those tee-times go at The Open on Sunday. You never know, might be able to get onto a plane to get to that one!” Jordan Smith was reminded of Fitzpatrick’s frantic flight south five years ago and said: “Yeah, I mean, that Netjets deal probably helped him a lot! “There’ll be a lot of us trying to get a late tee time so we can sit up and watch. It should be a really good game. “We were saying that at the start of the week. If we can get a late tee-time on Sunday, that would be perfect so we can watch the game. “I think we’re going to get to the final with France, but I think France are going to be just that little bit stronger. “I’m a Liverpool fan. I can’t remember the last game I went to watch. "It would be nice, but I haven’t really got time, unfortunately. “The only football boys I sort of know are Jimmy Ballard and John Terry, who is a member of my club.” The locker-room at Renaissance is full of World Cup chat this week with Norwegian Viktor Hovland starting the light-hearted ribbing earlier in the week when saying he hoped the English boys would be left crying. Smith smiled: “There’s always a bit of that chat going on. There’ll probably be a bit of banter between the English and the Norwegians. “I probably can’t give him [Hovland] too much as I don’t really know him too well. But I suppose there’s probably a bit going on between the Spanish and the French and the Belgium and all that. There’ll be a bit of flirting!” While the football pitch is exciting, the pair lit up the golf course in East Lothian with their skills. Smith’s brilliant second-round 63 smashed him into title contention and he said: “I had three weeks off, put the clubs away for a week and then came back, re-energised and looking forward to this next stretch. “Things are feeling good. I’m in a good sort of mental space. So, yeah, just keep it going.” Smith’s coach Simon Shanks also works with Bob MacIntyre , who won at Renaissance two years ago. He said: “It would be nice to follow. A long way to go yet, but I’ve been working with Simon pretty much since I started playing golf when I was about 13, 14. He knows my swing inside out.” Fitzpatrick’s Friday 65 left him one behind Smith and he’s flying ahead of the weekend play and an Open bid at Birkdale next week. He said: “It’s a good start on a golf course I’ve played well on before and I had a lot of confidence coming into this week on the back of playing well. Five birdies in a row was nice and an added bonus. “Next week is an exciting prospect. It’s been a great season so far and it’s hard to believe there is only a month and a half left of it. I plan to manage the rest of it as best I can and ride the wave, I guess.”