OPEN contender Matt Fitzpatrick is being cheered on from the galleries by a very special fan – his recent bride Katherine.

Fitzpatrick is in with a great chance of claiming his first Open title – and the first by an Englishman since 1992 when Sir Nick Faldo won his third.

And his biggest fan among the golf fans packed around Royal Portrush is his wife Katherine – a former beauty queen who was also a tennis professional.

They married in October 2024, after becoming Instagram official in January 2023.

Katherine, whose maiden name is Gaal, holds a double major degree in broadcast journalism and finance from Penn State University.

She is also a former beauty queen who finished runner-up in the Miss New Jersey USA pageant in 2014.

Katherine, 36, worked as a tennis professional at the Bay Head Yacht Club in Bay Head, New Jersey for two and a half years, before moving into marketing.

She clearly has sporting prowess in her genes. 

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Katherine shared on Instagram that her grandfather Dean Cetrulo won a bronze medal in fencing at the 1948 London Summer Olympics.

Matt and Katherine got married in New Jersey, and his brother and fellow pro golfer Alex Fitzpatrick was his best man.

Katherine is in Northern Ireland supporting her man, and has been delighting her 17k fans on Instagram with posts from the Emerald Isle.

She even shared a TikTok of her marking his balls with messages like “MF is cute” and “I love you”.

Fitzpatrick was asked about the video after he finished his second round of 66 that put him in contention at The Open.

He emphatically denied that she marks his golf balls before his rounds.

The Yorkshireman said: “She does not mark my golf balls. She does not, no, and I would not let her, no.”