Did Matt Fitzpatrick reject BBC’s invite ahead of SPOTY snub?

The Sports Personality of the Year award snubbed Matt Fitzpatrick. He was not among those named by the popular BBC show as effectively England's best athletes. Top performance is often recognized, and iconic athletes are honored, but Fitzpatrick, one of the best golfers in the world, wasn't even a nominee.

However, before he was grossly snubbed, he rejected an invitation. He said before they even announced the finalists for the award that he would not be in attendance even if he were nominated.

He didn't end up getting nominated, but it might not have mattered anyway. After a stellar year, he and the BBC do not see eye to eye on the awards show. Golf has, in the opinion of many golfers, been overlooked for far too long on this show.

As a result, the show has long been criticized for its treatment of golfers, not just by Fitzpatrick. Many golfers expressed their outrage this year after the snub. Fitzpatrick was as worthy as any candidate.

In its entire history, only two golfers have ever won the award. Nick Faldo was the most recent example, back in 1989.

It has been ages since a golfer was truly recognized on the show for their feats, and it seems like English golfers are growing more and more tired of it.

As a result, Fitzpatrick snubbed the BBC's popular award show long before they could officially snub him.

He could have been snubbed for one of two reasons. First, the BBC undoubtedly did not take kindly to those comments that he wouldn't come even if they invited him.

As a result, they may have decided to snub him to save themselves the embarrassment. On the other hand, no golfers have ever been accurately or appropriately honored for their achievements on the show.

For whatever reason, they don't respect golf as much, which is a very plausible reason they might have snubbed Fitzpatrick after a stellar year.

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How good was Matt Fitzpatrick this year? Golfer was more than worthy of a nomination

Matt Fitzpatrick had a stellar year

Matt Fitzpatrick claimed the U.S. Open title over Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris this year. It's not often that British golfers claim a major title, but it was apparently not enough to even be considered one of the top athletes in England.

Additionally, he finished ninth on the year's final OWGR leaderboard. That's higher than any other English player by a wide margin. Tommy Fleetwood was ranked 23rd and Tyrell Hatton 26th.

While Fitzpatrick's decision was noble, albeit potentially pointless, it might not change anything. One scenario is that the BBC see his refusal as a protest and begin to respect golfers moving forward.

That's not very likely since he probably wasn't going to get nominated anyway, sadly.

These issues have been going on for a long time, and golfers have been vocal about it. It hasn't changed a thing. Unfortunately, it's going to take a lot more than Matt Fitzpatrick snubbing them to make real change.