IT’S FLEETWOOD HACK!

Local knowledge not much use for Tommy as he fails to match Koepka

Tommy Fleetwood used to sneak through a fence on the fifth to get on the links at Royal Birkdale. yesterday there will have been times when he wished he could have exited that way, too.

Fleetwood enjoyed a fine 18 holes on the course near where he grew up in Southport, but unfortunately they weren’t his. Brooks Koepka, US open winner, from West Palm Beach, Florida, played Birkdale as if it was his second home.

Fleetwood, who it was fondly imagined knew every hill and valley at the greatest open venue south of Hadrian’s Wall, treated it like an angry stranger. He was six over par at the end of his round and in danger of missing his fourth consecutive cut at the open.

Perhaps that was the danger all along. much has been made of the likeable Fleetwood after his near miss at the US open and his tournament victories in Abu Dhabi and France this year. He was the local boy making good; this was his time, and Birkdale his course.

yet, in reality, he was always an outside bet. He says he hadn’t played Birkdale more than eight times before preparing for this open and he has played in eight major tournaments in his career — failing to make it past Friday in six of them.

The pressure of being one of the faces of the 2017 open would also have been new to him. Certainly, Fleetwood played like it was. He was warmly received all the way around, but without giving his supporters much to cheer about.

He didn’t play like a man in his comfort zone, either. Twice, there were lengthy deliberations with rules officials in response to errant shots and Fleetwood did not birdie a single hole, or force much by way of opportunity.

Koepke got going and was the tournament’s joint leader for much of the day at five under par; so too the third member of the group, Hideki matsuyama, who shot a very creditable 68. The 11 shots that separated Fleetwood from Koepke told their own story.

At the 17th, the pair were side by side in a bunker short to the right of the green. Koepke holed his chip to the biggest cheer of the round. Fleetwood sent his a good 10 feet past to polite applause. It wasn’t the worst shot. It just wasn’t a great shot.

He played plenty in that vein. Putts that were solid but didn’t threaten the hole. Fairway irons that got close, but not close enough for a properly aggressive tilt at birdie. Silence is not golden on a golf course. It’s the last thing a player wants to hear. Silence around the green after his approach shot; silence from the multitude tracking his tee shot. Fleetwood heard a lot of quiet.

The conditions didn’t help. most players were battling against the conditions all morning, so there were few heroics. In benign weather a championship venue rocks to spontaneous cheers. Fleetwood played, mainly, to the drone of a small engine plane getting the television aerial shots.

It was a little bit ho, a little bit hum — and then every three holes or so Fleetwood would make an error and be royally punished. He got that much right.

In his post-round assessment, Fleetwood insisted he didn’t catch the breaks and that much is true. If he needed a good kick, or a generous roll it eluded him. Koepke would have ended up with a little chip back round his feet had his ball not nestled in a sprinkler casing on the 15th. Fleetwood did not have a moment like that.

yet he didn’t make luck, either. What drama there was in his round was largely negative, centring on those moments when he was forced to recover from adversity. A snap hook second on the left found him down a bank in tall grass without even a shot towards the pin.

Any grounding of his club threatened to make the ball move and cost an additional shot. ‘What if I put it here?’ Fleetwood asked a rules official, indicating a point some way from the ball. no, he was told. That risked a sequence of events that could move the ball. What about here? or here. Each time the answer was negative. Fleetwood would have to suspend his club-head mid-air. Then the crowd needed to move back. And back. And back.

‘Look, you can see where he wants to hit it,’ said an exasperated marshal. yes they could. They just couldn’t understand why, the shot seemingly in the opposite direction to the pin. yet it was all Fleetwood had on. much like the ninth, when he had no option but to take a drop.

The best was saved to last. A glorious tee shot and a second to the heart of the green on the 18th. Those gathered there must have wondered what grand calamity on the previous 17 holes had caused the score of +6, but they hadn’t seen it. They were watching the exception, not the rule. Anyway, when Fleetwood missed a rare birdie opportunity from 12 feet, they probably had a better idea.

And then, the strangest thing. Fleetwood said he played well. ‘It wasn’t that bad at all,’ he insisted. ‘It just looks bad. I didn’t hit that many bad shots but, if I did, it really kicked me in the teeth. I was four over after nine but only hit one bad shot, the second on the sixth.

‘In the end, it doesn’t matter how well you know the course. you’ve got to make the shots and you’ve got to get the breaks. maybe Birkdale owes me one.’

maybe it does; or maybe we read too much into home advantage. Colin montgomerie was supposed to be favoured by bad weather on Scottish links, but when the wind howled and the rain poured that famous Saturday at muirfield in 2002, he still shot 84.

Steve Elkington, born in Inverell, new South Wales — lowest average monthly temperature, 60 degrees — shot 68.

It was like that yesterday. Koepke played superb links golf. Fleetwood talked a better game than he played. not a poor round? Jog on, Tommy.