FLEETWOOD ...MAC
Tommy & Rory ready for title charge and they WON’T STOP THINKING ABOUT TOMORROW
TOMMY FLEETWOOD rocketed into Open contention – and was backed by rival Rory McIlroy to become a Major champion.
The pair will duel for the Claret Jug this weekend on the tail of six-under leaders Kevin Kisner and Zach Johnson.
Fleetwood produced a stunning six-under round of 65 – two short of his own course record – to finish five under.
McIlroy shot another 69, ending on four under, and
IN this greatest of summers – for sport and weather – an Englishman with champion potential finally took centre stage.
Wall-to-wall sunshine and a World Cup of craft and excitement has had a nation hungry for success.
In Russia, Gareth Southgate’s battlers threatened to write a story to beat even Leicester’s title triumph, only to fall in the semi-finals.
At Wimbledon, Kyle Edmund looked ready to have the baton passed across the border from Scotland’s Andy Murray but despite early promise, he was denied by eventual winner, Novak Djokovic.
But English hopes of a true sporting hero emerging may soon be over.
Out of the gloom of his firstround let-down and a drizzly morning on day two, Tommy Fleetwood strode with ease through tricky conditions to take the Open by the scruff of the neck and make a case not only for an English sporting winner this summer but the first one at the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992.
Southport’s finest was an 18-month-old toddler then. Today he is a 27-year-old hipster, looking to follow his second-placed finish at last month’s US Open with his first Major crown.
He carded a magnificent six- under 65 with a mature display. Twelve pars, six birdies, no dropped shots. It was the stuff of champions from the world No.10 as he exploited the softer conditions to charge to the top of the leaderboard.
Fleetwood reflected: “When you’re out there, you hit the shots, and when you come in, you think: ‘Yeah, that was really good’.
“Normally when you play great, you know where the ball’s gone. A lot of the shots, I was just looking up, and I was really happy that they were going straight.
“If I can hit it like I did then I’m going to have a lot of chances over the weekend.”
Fleetwood holds the course record at Carnoustie. This didn’t match his 63 from the Dunhill Links Championship last October but it could prove far more significant.
Last year The Open was at his local course, Royal Birkdale, and Fleetwood struggled amid huge expectations as he tied27th. Last month in America he missed out by one-shot to winner Brooks Koepka but his final-round 63 was a recordequalling score.
He even had a putt for the first 62 in a US Open but missed his birdie effort from eight feet at the last. The 2017 European Tour money-winner assessed: “I’ve put myself high in the world rankings and at the US Open recently, I’ve had a great result. “The final round itself was just something that was very special. With that comes expectation and you have to learn to manage it and handle it.
“But it’s much nicer than having no eyes on you at all.”
Despite persistent rain and gusts yesterday, Fleetwood hit 67 per cent of fairways and 73 per cent of greens in regulation.
His round caught alight with successive birdies on the fourth and fifth. He then holed a long putt for birdie on the par-four ninth and chipped dead at the short par-four 11th.
He had a routine two-putt birdie after taking advantage of the 513-yard par-five 14th.
Fleetwood cited a regulation par on the 17th as his best hole, saying: “The wind picked up, and it was raining quite hard, and I hit two perfect two irons.”
But his loudest cheer was from the 18th grandstands when he sunk a 12-footer for birdie three.
“It’s no course record but it will do for today,” he assessed calmly.
That level-headed approach will certainly help him this weekend.