I was playing well, thinking Augusta’s a great course for me. But it finds a way to kick you
TOMMY FLEETWOOD admits he should have done better at the Masters but next week could be his best chance of winning elusive first major
IT says something about Tommy Fleetwood’s quality that he has been tied so closely to two of golf ’ s recurring thoughts. Both play to the same question — who is the next man up?
In simpler times, we may have asked it solely in the context of who will be next to break their duck in the majors. But these days it also probes at the contemporary drama of LIV and their next batch of targets.
Fleetwood has found himself mentioned with some regularity in each of those conversations — a golfer on the precipice of crashing through and a golfer too good not to draw offers from an ambitious start-up circuit.
As he sits with Mail Sport in the Florida sunshine, with the first major of the season looming at the Masters, we start with the matter at hand. That being the harder one to achieve.
‘It hasn’t happened yet, has it?’ he says and we are talking about a record that shows the world No 12 has finished second in the Open and US Open, with three further top-fives across those two and the US PGA Championship. Augusta? That is a beast this 33-year-old Englishman is yet to tame and it is baffling when you weigh the merits of a player whose ball-striking is the envy of most on tour, whose natural draw is a perfect fit for the landscape and whose putting is strong. Baffling for those of us watching and baffling for him, too.
‘Believe me, I see it that way!’ he says. ‘My results there have been a bit “meh”. I had a tie for 14th a couple of years ago and that’s my best.
‘I can’t really put a finger on it. The second year I played the Masters was 2018. I had a really good third round and I was playing in the third-to-last group on the Sunday. I was feeling, “Well, this is a great course for me”, but it always has a way of being able to kick you.
‘That Sunday, I think I put it in the water on 15, finished with a bogey and ended up 17th. It’s not really what you want, is it?
‘In real terms, if I tell my kids when they grow up that I had a 14th and 17th at the Masters, it’s fine, right? They might let me off for that. But it’s just not at the level the others have been.
‘This year I looked at things and thought, “I’ve never played the week before”, and that’s the only major I’ve not tried that for. I’m giving that a go (at the Valero Open in Texas this weekend) and we’ll see if that helps.’
Fleetwood has always been a man for whom folk wish the best. He is bright, fun and not remotely preoccupied by ideas of his own self-importance.
‘I hit golf balls for a job,’ he says and he does it well. But people also insert him into discussions about the best player without one of the big four titles to his name.
‘It’s a bit of a back-handed compliment,’ he says. ‘It’s a tricky one. It’s nice that people see my game that way but, believe me, I want to get off that list.
‘It’s important to remember there’s some phenomenal golfers who have not won a major. How can anyone knock Lee Westwood’s career? Incredible. But he never won a major. Colin Montgomerie was one of my heroes growing up, won eight Orders of Merit, but never quite won a major.
‘There are better golfers than me who never won one. I’ve got a good few years left of my career, touch wood, and I just have to keep giving myself chances. I would love to win one, two, three, but to get to two you have to get to one first. For me, growing up in
Southport surrounded by Open venues, winning the Open is the one I dream of. I still dream of it like I’m seven years old.
‘I will always say if you had to pick one to win and never touch the clubs again, for me the Open is streets ahead.
‘But I suppose the Masters would be nice, wouldn’t it? I still have the old soundtrack from the BBC opening credits in my mind when I talk about it now. If I had to have a Green Jacket in the wardrobe, I suppose I’d tolerate it!’
Fleetwood has seven titles on the European circuit, most recently in his adopted home of Dubai in January, but none have come Stateside.
With five runner-up finishes, four thirds, 22 top-fives and 33 top-10s, he has done everything but win, though his mark was felt by the Americans last year when he claimed the decisive point in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory.
It speaks to golf’s turbulence that six months on, two key cogs of Luke Donald’s team — Jon Rahm, the defending Masters champion, and Tyrrell Hatton — now play on the LIV tour. It is well known they wanted Fleetwood from the beginning and the latest push to get him was made shortly after the Cup
‘I’ll play where I can pursue my dreams and be the best golfer I can be’
win in Rome. They did not get their man though, with Fleetwood preferring to stay on the PGA Tour. For now, at least.
Given the uncertainties of golf’s political situation, with merger talks yet to conclude and confusion over how LIV golfers might find a route back to the majors, adopting a watching brief is probably wise.
‘I’m 33 and still very much in the middle of my career,’ he says. ‘My decisions will always be made on where I can best pursue my goals, my dreams, and where I feel like I can still chase being the best golfer I can possibly be.
‘Obviously I’m still playing here (on the PGA Tour) and that’s what I believe gives me the best chance of doing those things.
‘ I’ll never be one to knock anybody’s choices or anybody’s decisions. I guess you have to give things time and see how they play out.
‘As we’ve seen, there are people a lot higher up that made decisions on where the world of golf is. It would be great for the best players to all play together and for us all to challenge ourselves against the best players.
‘But for me, at the moment, I believe I’m in the best place to be pursuing my dream of winning majors.’
Will he be the next man up? That remains to be seen on a couple of counts.