Hopes for more fans at Euros
SOUTHPORT’S Tommy Fleetwood struck one of the shots of the tournament in the 85th Masters.
The tournament took place this past weekend at the prestigious Augusta National Golf Course, with Hideki Matsuyama becoming the first Japanese player to win the green jacket.
Competing in his 5th Masters tournament, Fleetwood hit one of the shots of the tournament, a hole-in-one on the 16th hole of the opening round.
Despite a 46th placed finish, the Englishman was over-themoon with the ace, which resulted in his first ever eagle at the Masters.
He said: “It’s tricky because the wind does swill a little bit. Up until that point I had zero momentum, so it was nice to do something special and get something out of the round, so it was good!
“It was a lovely looking shot, it was in between clubs so I was verging on a smooth eight, but then we decided hard nine, and that fit the shot a bit more, so I ended up hitting nine.
“It ranks really, really high [as one of his all-time shots]. We were walking down, and Tim said to me ‘you’ll get a nice bit of crystal for an eagle’, and I said, ‘well hold on, I’ve never made an eagle at Augusta’, so 5th outing, and I finally got one!
“It was very special, and obviously doing it at a major is great.
Doing it competitively is also great but to do it at Augusta is another edge”, said Fleetwood.
The 30-year-old has become a prominent figure for Europe in the Ryder Cup, claiming 5 European Tour victories. Despite this, he has never won on the PGA tour, with his closest results coming in 2019 at The Open Championship, and in 2018 at the US Open, where he came second. He is however, no stranger to a hole-in-one, hitting one in the last competitive tournament, at the World Golf Championships – Match Play event in Texas a fortnight ago.
“It’s nice to have one at the masters! That’s two in two competitive weeks as well so I’m racking them up all of a sudden quickly, I’ll try and keep them going.
“I did some good stuff, but I need to putt better a couple of drives, and a couple of putts are what were costing me shots. I felt like my in-play was pretty good for the most part I felt like I was striking them nicely”, said the man from Southport.
He also took to Twitter to acknowledge that it wasn’t his best round of golf but expressed his delight at the 170-yard ace, and how it has reminded him of his love for the sport.
He said: “Ever have one of those rounds of golf when you’re so frustrated at this stupid game for not giving you what you deserve?
“Then, just when you’re about to lose it, you hit THE shot that makes you realise why you’re so hopelessly in love with it! #themasters”.
UEFA will allow host cities to ‘upscale’ plans for supporters to attend Euro 2020 matches should conditions around the coronavirus pandemic improve.
The European governing body asked for the 12 host cities - including Glasgow, Dublin and London to submit their proposals on how many fans they expect to be able to accommodate by last night.
The UK Government has announced plans for a number of test events - including a 21,000 crowd for the FA Cup final on May 15 - with a view to having Wembley full for at least some European Championship games.
Wembley will see England open their Group D campaign against Croatia on June 13, before then welcoming Scotland on June 18 followed by the Czech
Republic.
The national stadium is also set to host one last-16 game as well as both the semi-finals and then final on July 11.
Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was optimistic there would be a ‘reasonably good number’ of supporters at Hampden for matches against the Czechs on June 14 and then Croatia eight days later.
Dublin, meanwhile, has three Group E games, involving Poland, Slovakia and Sweden, as well one of the ties in the knock-out stage.
There is some uncertainty, though, as to whether the Aviva Stadium will be in a position to accept fans due to travel restrictions and limits on mass gatherings.
An Irish
Government spokesman said assurances on minimum spectator levels could not be currently provided.
Once hosts have submitted the scenarios, they will be allowed to come back to UEFA before April 28 with an increased view on how many supporters they could accommodate.