Fleetwood soars to new level to stoke English hopes
Rising star one shot off lead after superb round Emergency coaching session delivers results
This was the second time in a month that Tommy Fleetwood conjured a beauty of a round on a beast of a course to make up so much lost ground and close to within one of the lead on a major leaderboard.
However, the thrilling difference for Fleetwood, and indeed all of the English fans yearning for their first winner in 26 years, is that this was only the second round of the Open and not the final round, as it was in the US Open.
It was a classic links day, when the weather offered four seasons and the players responded with their own enthralling variance. Rory Mcilroy brought himself into the thrust of contention on four under, yet even his 69 paled beside the endeavours of young Fleetwood.
Perhaps this 65 did not quite possess the scoring criticality of Fleetwood’s 63 at Shinnecock Hills four weeks ago, which took him so close to a play-off with Brooks Koepka. But as ball-striking exhibitions go this was up there with anything seen by a Briton in recent memory.
And as the player who has shot the lowest-ever round at Carnoustie – another 63 during last year’s Dunhill Links Championship – Fleetwood, the world No 10, has a reliable gauge of its worthiness.
“It was good, very good,” Fleetwood said. “It’s no course record, but it will do – it was a spirited effort. It was a very strong round of golf, and I hit a lot of good shots. If I could pick one tournament in my life to win, it would be the Open. I’ve never been anywhere near before. So far for two rounds I’m up there on the leaderboard.”
Beginning at one over after, in his own words, “hitting it like c---p in the first round”, Fleetwood came out as a man renewed after an hour on the range with coach Alan Thompson on Thursday night. His six-under magnificence, the best of the week here so far, flowed as seamlessly as his locks, with five birdies and no bogeys.
On five under he is one behind the pacesetters, 2015 Open champion Zach Johnson and overnight leader Kevin Kisner, who doublebogeyed the last to forsake a twoshot advantage. Two more Americans, Pat Perez and Xander Schauffele, are alongside Fleetwood and the fact that he is surrounded by the Stars and Stripes, with the US having won the past five majors and aiming to make it six for the first time in 36 years, should raise the pressure to extraordinary levels.
But Fleetwood was in his zone and was still in this mindset seven hours after signing his scorecard. He had returned to the putting green with his putting coach, Phil Kenyon, caddie Ian Finnis and Thompson. They knew that should he maintain this tee-to-green quality ‘If I could pick one tournament I could win it would be the Open. And, so far, I am up there’ then only the short game could be to blame.
His pair of two-irons to the 17th had been breathtaking, as was his drive and approach on the 18th. Fleetwood holed that 12-footer to rapturous applause from the grandstands. The 27-year-old is one of the more modest characters out there, but even he had to acknowledge that with a fist pump.
“It just helps doesn’t it – it made my lunch taste that much sweeter,” Fleetwood said. “I struggled yesterday tee-to-green, and it was hard, but that time with Thommo sorted me and I put it in position all day and holed a few putts in tough conditions. Yeah, I’m happy where I am. I mean, I have to be.”
Fleetwood in this form is so intoxicating that he can actually manage to arrest some of the spotlight from Mcilroy and Tiger Woods (who are on four under and level par respectively). And, for that matter, even Carnoustie itself.
The day began in deep drizzle and ended in sunlight but, regardless, anyone who attended would have left this marvellous links with bright memories.
Mcilroy’s second successive 69 hauled him to four under and had his many admirers frothing at the realisation that the past three times he opened a major with two sub-70 rounds he happened to win. Of course, the last of those was four years ago, but it is fair to say that going into the weekend he is expectant. “I feel like there are low rounds in me,” Mcilroy said. “If I can get on a run or get off to a fast start I definitely see something like a 66 or a 65. I’m capable of that.”
Woods, meanwhile, was simply Woods as he is nowadays. With a 71 to match his opener, this was the first time he had made par or better in the first two rounds of a major since 2013. So much of it appeared to be heart-racingly reminiscent, while an equal measure dragged the pulse back to the sinus-rhythm of reality.
Woods is only six behind, but that is a big “only”. On Thursday, he failed to birdie either of the par fives and yesterday the shortfall was in his putting. He missed a fivefooter on the 18th for a bogey and that made it 32 putts – too many. But do not tell Woods’s wonderfully enduring competitive heart as much. “It’ll be a pretty packed leaderboard and I’m figuring right there in it,” he said.
But if he takes a look up the board he will see more than 25 players in his path to a first major in 10 years and first win of any description in five years. Granted, the world’s Nos 1 and 2, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas both missed the cut, while the No 3, Justin Rose, only scraped inside on three over. But the calibre blocking Woods included last year’s unlucky loser Matt Kuchar, on the same mark as Mcilroy and, on three under, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler.
That duo put the life into the closing stages of this frenetic, fascinating Friday. Spieth’s 67 was ominously composed. “I made more putts and played to the right places,” Spieth said. “I’m on point and can’t wait.” He and Carnoustie both.