Rising star living European dream

Tommy Fleetwood admits his recordbreaking Ryder Cup debut exceeded all expectations, even if he only got a few minutes to enjoy his son’s first birthday.

Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari became the first European pair to win all four of their matches together, with Molinari going on to beat Phil Mickelson in the singles to record the first perfect 5-0 record by a European.

And although Fleetwood ran into an inspired Tony Finau on Sunday to lose his 100% record, the four points he accrued at Le Golf National equalled the best performance by a European rookie in the contest, set by Thomas Pieters at Hazeltine in 2016.

“It’s my first Ryder Cup experience and it exceeded all expectations in pretty much every way,” the 27-year-old from Southport told Press Association Sport after being doused in Champagne by his team-mates and even kissed on the forehead by Rory McIlroy.

“Being part of team Europe from Monday to now has been the most incredible experience. When people say you make friendships and bonds that last a lifetime, you 100% do, that’s not a word of a lie.

“I’m very lucky and blessed to be a part of this bunch of people, which is more than 12, 16 or 17 people.

“I think we had a lot of confidence in ourselves. We know how good the American team is, but we had a lot of confidence in our ability and how we’d planned all this and Thomas (Bjorn, European captain) let us play and let us do our thing.

“He had a plan on day one and stuck to that even when things weren’t going very well and we’ve just got a very, very good bunch of players and it was our year.”

Things were certainly not going to plan when Europe lost the first three matches on Friday, with Fleetwood and Molinari preventing a repeat of the opening-session whitewash at Hazeltine by beating Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed.

That win appeared to make up Bjorn’s mind that the same pair would also contest the afternoon foursomes, a session in which the United States were whitewashed for the first time as Europe took a lead they would never relinquish.

But it did also mean Fleetwood had precious little time with his son Frankie, whose first birthday coincided with the opening day’s action.

“I got 10 minutes with him, which is more than I thought I was going to get and it was great,” Fleetwood said with a smile.

Picture: PA. Tommy Fleetwood reacts after making another putt during the Ryder Cup.