Tommy joins charge for a magnificent XI at Augusta
Never before in the long history of the Masters has england — or indeed any country outside the host nations — fielded as many as a football team’s worth of representatives but it could easily happen when the season’s first major gets under way next month.
the hardest major to get into because of the relatively small size of the field is seemingly proving no barrier to the growing corps of englishmen now plying their trade at the highest level.
the nine who have already guaranteed themselves an invitation is set to rise to 10 following tommy Fleetwood’s brilliant performance in finishing runner-up to Dustin Johnson in the WGC- Mexico Championship on Sunday.
the world’s top 50 on March 27 will gain a spot at augusta and the 26-year- old from Southport, who began the year in 99th place, has risen to 35th to all but assure himself a first appearance.
It is richly deserved. two years ago he missed out in heartbreaking fashion when he was denied a place in the top 50 by a fraction of a point. the man who denied him just happened to be Danny Willett. While he went on to do rather well at augusta last year, Fleetwood lost his game completely.
‘I was in a very dark place at the BMW Championship at Wentworth last year,’ he admitted to Sports
mail in January. Going back to the coach who first taught him — alan thompson, a much-revered teacher in the North West of england — might be the wisest decision he ever makes. For look at him now, after following up a first victory in four years in abu Dhabi in January with this sterling effort.
So who can be the 11th man? Ian Poulter’s run of 10 consecutive appearances is surely coming to an end while another Masters stalwart luke Donald, presently 88th, has an awful lot to do to creep into the top 50.
the one to keep an eye on, then, is the ever- consistent ross Fisher. third in Mexico after a wonderful final-round 65, he has risen to 55th in the rankings and that will earn him a spot in the final Masters qualifying event, the WGCDell technologies Match Play in austin, texas, in two weeks.
Open only to the top 64 and laden with ranking points, the 36-yearold from ascot would have to make it to the final 16 to stand a chance of moving up five spots but he is more than capable of that.
traditional powerhouses australia and South africa usually vie for the most non-american representatives at the Masters but it is a measure of how far england is punching above its weight that the former has just four players in the field and the latter five.
the other eight englishmen not mentioned are Paul Casey, Matt Fitzpatrick, tyrrell hatton, Justin rose, andy Sullivan, lee Westwood, Chris Wood and Scott Gregory, the amateur champion.
Incidentally, the other representatives from the British Isles will be Sandy lyle and russell Knox from Scotland, rory McIlroy from Northern Ireland and Ireland’s Shane lowry.