Tommy Fleetwood exorcised a significant demon when he stormed to victory at the PGA Tour’s Tour Championship at East Lake, firmly putting to bed any lingering doubts that he could get over the line on the PGA Tour.
A month later, he played a starring role in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory at Bethpage Black – claiming four from a possible five points – and he ended the year by winning the inaugural DP World India Championship, finishing runner-up in Abu Dhabi and tied for third at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
All in all, he recorded two victories, a further nine top 10 finishes, and missed the cut in just one of his 25 starts, and ended the year as the third-ranked player in the world, trailing only Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. And though the Englishman knows that overhauling four- and five-time major champions is a tough task, it’s one that he’s eager to take on.
“I would love to,” he said of challenging for top spot. “There is a clear gap, those two guys are definitely the best golfers in the world. I’m just one of the players in the pack behind that has some catching up to do there.
“Look at every aspect of my game, where I can improve, where I can pick the smallest amount of shots up to those guys.
“But it’s an amazing challenge, if you think of it like that. Starting the year in a different position than I’ve ever been, World Number Three, and I think that’s very cool and very exciting to sort of have to think about trying to maintain the level that I’ve reached there, and I think that’s very, very exciting. And I think that’s the first thing to do.
“Challenging the top two players in the world, I’m not going to say that that’s something that I’m not focused on and not interested in. Of course you are and you want to see where you can get to but that’s a long road ahead. That’s not going to happen next week or in a couple of months’ time.
“So I have to really just stick in, work on my game. I think it’s an amazing opportunity. I really think Scottie and Rory, they already are but definitely when we look back at this time, those two are going to be very high up there in the greatest players of all time. To be the next guy at this current time, that could change next week or in a month, whatever that may be.
“I just think it’s very, very cool and very special and I just love the fact that I am sort of in the mix and you’ve even asked me a question of: ‘those two guys are the best two in the world, what do you have to do to try and catch them?’. I think it’s a massive compliment to me and I think it’s something that’s really, really exciting.”
In fact, statistically, only Scheffler was better than Fleetwood last year. Data Golf, which ranks the top players across all tours, including LIV, has Fleetwood second to the world number one with Jon Rahm, McIlroy and Ben Griffin completing the top five, so the idea that he could overtake McIlroy and Scheffler is far from outlandish now that he’s got the PGA Tour monkey off his back.
And what better place to start that push than in the country he now calls home and at a golf course where he edged out McIlroy in the final round two years ago.
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