Can local boy Tommy be first Brit to tame Birkdale?
A LOCAL lad winning golf’s biggest tournament in the town where he grew up is the stuff of Hollywood scriptwriters.
But for Tommy Fleetwood, that dream could become reality at Royal Birkdale this week.
He heads into The Open Championship in the form of his life, having won twice this season and leading the European Tour’s Race to Dubai money list.
The 26-year-old from Southport is one of the hottest players in golf and now he can tee it up in his home Major with huge crowd support behind him as he bids to become the first homegrown player to triumph at Birkdale.
It promises to be a special week and there will be few people prouder on Thursday than his first coach, Norman Marshall.
He was introduced to Tommy as a six-year-old at nearby Formby Hall Golf Club and he had no doubts that he was dealing with a special talent.
“Tommy was a shy, quiet kid,” recalls Norman. “I knew he was a bit special. In fact, he was a bit of a golfing genius.
“The best thing was, he absolutely loved golf. I tell parents now that if their children don’t have that love of the game, the rest doesn’t matter.
“Tommy was obsessed with hitting balls. His favourite club even then was his driver and he practised a lot with that.
“Now you see him and that’s his strength. He has that metronomic quality to keep hitting it long and straight off the tee.
“I’m not surprised to see where he is now. The surprise to me was when he struggled for a couple of years having been a child prodigy, Walker Cup player and early winner on Tour.”
But the best thing about Fleetwood, as far as his old coach is concerned, is that he has remained down-to-earth. He still nips back to Formby Hall to play and practice, and he’s a real inspiration to the club’s aspiring youngsters.
“Tommy is a hero to all the kids I teach,” he says. “But he’s not a distant figure. He always has time for the juniors and is always signing things for them.
“He might not be around too much but virtually all of the kids have seen him practice. That is inspiring.
“We say to all the really talented juniors that they wouldn’t believe how hard Tommy works on his game.
“I run a program called Mission 4 Golf which has 125 juniors on it. I ask each of them to put a special tag on their golf bag which says ‘Mission 4 Golf’.
“I gave one to Tommy and he put it on his bag for The Masters this year and now he has it on every week. That’s the type of guy he is. He’s a really kind fella.
“There is such a buzz around the club at the moment. If he gets into contention at The Open, the atmosphere will be unbelievable. The hard thing might be keeping a lid on it.”
Marshall will have a special eye on events at Birkdale, as he was a trainee at the club for four years, and knows the course well.
So he won’t rule out his former pupil’s chances.
“Birkdale is a drivers’ course and that is Tommy’s strength,” he states. “If Tommy gets in with a sniff, he never backs down.
“We were all watching at the club when he won the French Open and his mum and dad were there.
“His dad told me that previously Tommy couldn’t stand Le Golf National and that it didn’t suit him. So to win there shows he must be in total control of his game.”