Chubby's On The Comeback Road With Fitzpatrick

It's kind of startling to read Derek Lawrenson's story on agent Chubby Chandler inking Matthew Fitzpatrick and banking on the lad's success going forward, but that's how far the hottest-agent-in-the-world-circa-2011 has fallen after the defections of Rory McIlroy and (I guess) Charl Schwartzel.

From the story:

Chandler admitted: ‘For about six weeks I was dreading what the next phone call would bring.’

What it actually delivered was a game-changer.

It’s fair to say every manager worth his salt was trying to sign Fitzpatrick, including Mark Steinberg, who looks after Tiger Woods and Justin Rose. In the end it came down to Chandler against IMG.

After all that had gone on, Chandler was acutely aware how it would have looked in the industry if he’d lost.

‘Matt asked why he should sign for me rather than IMG and it took him 15 seconds to ask and about 15 minutes for me to answer,’ recalls Chandler. ‘He promised to ring up the following day and let me know. He was hesitant at first and I thought he was going to say IMG, so it was a huge relief.’