WOOD FOR THOUGHT

Fleetwood had game his face on while Westwood looked like he was having fun

ONE had his happy face on, the other his game face.

And when the two friends shook hands just before a quarter to eight, it was the intensity of Tommy Fleetwood that was left spearheading the English challenge at the 148th Open.

Their demeanours were different but they combined to give a special Saturday crowd a treat.

In the end, the brilliance of a Fleetwood at his peak took him clear of the brilliance of a countryman descending from his peak, but Lee Westwood has little need to reproach himself.

Until his tee shot on the 10th zeroed in on the shrubbery – triggering a relatively disappointing homeward stretch – he was seemingly determined to showcase his carefree approach.

“Wouldn’t want to play that again,” he told the gallery after getting up and down from a devilish spot on the short sixth.

His three birdies going out were unashamedly met with loving merriment between Westwood and his girlfriend-caddie, Helen.

That changed a touch when his entanglement in the bush led to his first dropped shot of the day but this was a 46-yearold true to his claim that just being out there duelling with the young guns meant he was ultra-relaxed.

Ultra-relaxed and, that errant drive at the beginning of the back nine apart, striking it well.

Westwood has never been a monstrous hitter and was probably a good club shorter than Fleetwood.

And that is what makes this Open performance, wherever he finishes, an outstanding one.

For Fleetwood, this is where a 28-year-old of his prodigious talent should be – shooting a flawless, five-birdie, third-round 66 to put himself in the last group of a Major on the final day.

Fleetwood is part of an elite cabal of relatively young players whose ability makes them feel obliged to be up there.

Last year, he finished 17th at the Masters, second at the US Open, 12th at The Open and 35th at the US PGA.

That is door-knocking stuff. But this year, his highest finish in the three Majors to date has been his 36th at the Masters. For the colossus of the last Ryder Cup, that is not the sort of progress he would have been expecting to make.

Put it this way, he ended 2018 world-ranked 12th and is now 20th.

That will surely change, but Fleetwood, before heading out, was acutely aware that these chances – when in the prime of your golfing career – are there to be seized.

Although unfailingly courteous and polite amid the noisy goodwill towards him, he was, as they say, very much in the zone from the moment he holed a 12-footer for a birdie at the first.

Maybe he had given the flamboyant shirt a day off because he thought it would be a distraction.

Westwood finished eight off the leader, Shane Lowry, in sixth place, but maybe that will give him even more freedom to go out and enjoy himself in the final round.

It is unlikely Fleetwood will be thinking about enjoying himself.

Ahead of this round, he had spoken about how he had pictured himself holding the Claret Jug.

In second place and four shots back from Lowry, this is as good a chance as he had and, although you would surely think not, may ever get.