Age: 29
World ranking (current/end of year)
Current: 10th
2019: 10th
2018: 12th
2017: 17th
2016: 99th
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Current 2020 Stats
FedEx Cup Rank: 65th
Events: 6
Wins: 0
Top 10: 1
Top 25: 4
Made Cut: 5
Money: $855,920
Strokes Gained
Off-The-Tee: 16th (2019: 12th, 2018: 13th, 2017: -)
Approach: 34th (2019: 55th, 2018: 34th, 2017: -)
Around The Green: 176th (2019: 15th, 2018: 21st, 2017: -)
Putting: 96th (2019: 55th, 2018: 38th, 2017: -)
Tee-To-Green: 27th (2019: 13th, 2018: 9th, 2017: -)
Total: 27th (2019: 12th, 2018: 4th, 2017: -)
Analysis
Since becoming a world top 20 golfer in mid-2017 and playing more on the PGA TOUR, Fleetwood has backed up what we knew from Europe: he’s a superb driver and elite ball-striker (ranked 1st for GIR on the European Tour in both 2017 and 2018) but can be inconsistent with the putter. However, he’s putted American greens pretty well over the last three years which bodes well, the only current weakness in his 2020 numbers being Around The Green. Again, though, he was strong in that department in both 2018 and 2019 so Fleetwood has all the skills to not just get a first PGA TOUR success but become a multiple winner Stateside. That first success almost came at the Honda Classic at the start of March while he’s had three other top 25s.
Grade so far: B- (would raise to B if taking into account European Tour form this season: 2-11)
Tommy Fleetwood 2020 quotes
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (after a closing 63 to finish runner-up on his first start of 2020): “As the week progressed, my prep’s been good and my iron play has been brilliant, especially over the weekend, I feel like it’s been as sharp as it has been for the last year and years gone by.” Fleetwood ranked second in SG: Tee-To-Green in Abu Dhabi that week.
Dubai Desert Classic (on whether he’s ready to win a major): “The majors are the toughest tests and that’s it. They challenge every part of our game. They challenge your mental side. They challenge patience and if you’re up there with a chance to win, they challenge how ready you are to go on and win those events. Unfortunately it’s not happened for me yet, but like I say, hopefully my career is progressing in the right way to eventually become a major champion.”
Dubai Desert Classic (on scheduling): “I think more than four (in succession) is getting a bit carried away, and I’m not somebody that likes to play one week on and then two or three weeks off. I definitely like at least two, but no more than four and then take it from there. So easy if you play well for three weeks in a row, so easy to carry on because you know you’re playing well. But yeah, it’s going to run out eventually, so you need to rest up.”
Honda Classic (after just missing out on his first PGA TOUR win): “At the end of the day, I felt like I was really good mentally, hung in there until the end and gave myself a chance at the last. But when the margins are small, that’s OK. I just said that I don’t feel like I’m getting worse at golf. I’ve just got to keep pushing. Absolutely I want to be a regular winner, but there’s no point in moaning and groaning about it now. It didn’t happen. There’s a lot of amazing players on the TOUR trying to win, and it’s not given, so I’ve just got to keep going and if I keep getting this close, it’ll happen.” Fleetwood finished 5th in SG: Tee-To-Green at PGA National.
Players Championship (after a R1 78 which followed his MC at Bay Hill): “From a golf perspective I’m playing pretty bad, so it just feels like I can go home and reset and practice a little bit.”
THE MAJORS (most recent result on the left)
The Masters: 36-17-MC
He’s yet to have a top 15 at Augusta National although a 66 in round three in 2018 is worth noting even though Fleetwood played it down a little. “It was just set up for good scoring and I was one of them that made the most of it.” However, the 29-year-old does feel it’s a venue where he can have success. “If I drive it like I normally do, it sets me up in the best possible way to be able to hit my irons into the spots I need to and you can control your ball.” He’s ranked 10th and 11th respectively for GIR in the last two years but in three attempts the Englishman has yet to average less than 30 putts for the week.
PGA Championship: 48-35-61-DNP-MC-MC
His poorest major so far with no top 30s in five attempts although he’s made the last three cuts. However, if he gets a crack at this year’s venue, Harding Park, that could change. “I played that in the match play and enjoyed it. Actually played well that week,” Fleetwood recalled earlier this year. That was in the 2015 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play where as 54th seed he won an all-European group against Sergio Garcia, Bernd Wiesberger and Jamie Donaldson, defeated Branden Grace in the last 16 before losing to Danny Willett in the quarter-finals.
U.S. Open: 65-2-4-MC-27
His best major. After debuting with T27 at Chambers Bay in 2015, Fleetwood took solo fourth at Erin Hills in 2017 and was runner-up at Shinnecock in 2018, his closing 63 matching the low 18 in the history of the U.S. Open. Not bad given that it was first played in 1895. Fleetwood ranked 1st for Total Driving, Ball-Striking and All-Around two years ago. He’s never played Winged Foot but clearly enjoyed the New York crowds when flourishing at Shinnecock. Across the three U.S.-based majors, he’s 9-for-12 with two top fives.
Open Championship: 2-12-27-MC-MC-MC
“I haven’t played St. George’s, ever,” Fleetwood admitted at the start of 2020 when looking ahead to the majors. While gamers/bettors will be slightly disappointed by that, it’s clear that he’s getting better and better in his home major. After a trio of early exits, the man who grew up on the Lancashire links, was T27 on local track Royal Birkdale in 2017, improved to T12 at Carnoustie and was runner-up for the second time in a major when second to Shane Lowry at Royal Portrush last summer. Cutting through the disappointment, he said: “That’s the first time I’ve played in the last group of a major on a Sunday. You learn things as you go. You learn things about yourself. I watched Shane in The Open. I watched how he conducted himself and how he played. And for four rounds of golf I was the second-best player in the event, which is a great achievement. You have to look at it like that.” And in terms of priority? “If I could pick one event it would be The Open. It’s my dream, and it always will be.”
