Brilliant Fleetwood is on the cusp of greatness
ovER the past 18 months, tommy Fleetwood has put together such an impressive body of work it’s hardly surprising that a judge as astute as Butch Harmon now believes it is simply a matter of time before he wins a major championship.
certainly, the manner in which he has passed so many landmarks that have proved to be stumbling blocks for so many tells us that not only has he the talent but the temperament and ambition as well.
consider the journey he has been on, beginning with a breakthrough victory in abu dhabi at the beginning of 2017, his first for three years. two months later came a runner-up spot in a WGc event in Mexico that opened doors in america, where he finished fourth at the US open.
on to July, and a victory at the French open played over the course that will host the Ryder cup in September that left onlookers swooning. Four months later, he was crowned the winner of the Race to dubai. If all that wasn’t enough, consider that his partner clare gave birth to their first child and then they ended the year by getting married in the Bahamas.
Yet Fleetwood’s form this year has arguably been more impressive. He won in abu dhabi and has since criss-crossed the atlantic barely finishing outside the top 30 at any event he has entered.
In finishing runner-up behind Brooks Koepka at the US open, the 27-year-old Englishman shot the best score in the second and fourth rounds, and might well have won if he hadn’t had the worst of the draw in the first round, and suffered at the hands of the USGa’s meddling in the third on Saturday.
‘I’m comfortable playing in the majors and I feel I’ve progressed to the point where I can compete with anyone,’ he said on Sunday, after two hours bouncing baby Frankie on his knee while waiting to see if anyone caught him following his brilliant round of 63.
now comes perhaps the biggest test of all. He has benefited from being in Rory McIlroy’s shadow in the build-up to recent majors but at the open at carnoustie next month — where he is the course record holder — he will start as one of the favourites in his own right.
It will be interesting to see how he copes with the sort of scrutiny McIlroy gets every time he plays, because it is a different world.
But wealth hasn’t changed Fleetwood, nor personal contentment proved a distraction.
Success hasn’t sated him but brought a craving for more. the signs are good, therefore.
It’s an exciting thought that the boy who had so little growing up, who used to walk past one major championship venue in Royal Birkdale without ever being allowed in, is getting ever closer to the game’s four greatest prizes.