Fans rally round one of their own as Fleetwood fights back with a 66
WHAT do golfers talk about on their way around a Championship course? As Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose ambled between fourth green and fifth tee, gravity was the subject of their exchange. It was apt, given the manner in which hometown hero Fleetwood was brought back down to earth on the opening day.
Yesterday, though, he took flight. A round of 66 was 10 strokes better than his return on Thursday, when expectant eyes tracked his every shot. But on a sunny morning the pressure was off.
Fleetwood and Rose were the second group out, having only just scraped into the weekend’s play. The crowd was still sizeable — Rose described it as the busiest he had seen since the Ryder Cup — but they were mostly locals following one of their own. The cameras and media throng were almost nonexistent compared to the scrum of 48 hours previously. And with that, Fleetwood appeared to relax. ‘Come on Tommy, I’ve had my house on you,’ yelled one spectator. ‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that,’ he smiled. Come the 17th he was offering more than shots by way of entertainment. A wayward approach to the green cannoned off the shin of a fan into the rough.
‘Can you kick it on the fairway next time?’ he asked, to much hilarity.
By now, Fleetwood was enjoying himself. He had birdied 14 — his fourth of the day — before eagling 15.
The bogeys which bookended the opening nine were unfortunate, as was the sound of a crying toddler as he lined up a 25-foot birdie putt on eight. But he sank it, a premature — but not misplaced — holler of ‘Get in Tommy son’ drowning out the wailing tot.
After par on the last, the match referee shook Fleetwood’s hand and offered a sincere, ‘Very, very well played’.
OK, conditions meant a good score was there to be had, but he still shot three better than former US Open champion Rose. And, after recording his best-ever round at a major, the 26-year-old said: ‘It would have been pretty rubbish sitting at home this weekend. It’s the first cut I’ve made in The Open in four attempts.
‘It has been amazing getting clapped on to every green and every tee by people that you know. I wish I could have started off better, but that’s golf and that’s life, deal with it.’