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By Kent Gray
Tommy Fleetwood has four European tour titles, a Race to Dubai crown and an official world golf ranking of 14 but his evolution as one of the game’s marquee players is till very much a work in progress.
The 28-year-old Englishman talked Tiger, golf’s new rules – “Some of them are a bit odd, aren’t they”, the set-up of Emirates Golf Club and about the new clubs in his bag in his presser ahead of the 30th Omega Dubai Desert Classic on Tuesday.
But the most insightful answers came when the Southport striper faced the inevitable questioning about the elephant in his increasingly crowded trophy room.
With the beauty of hindsight, the major champion-in-waiting admits he played too many events last season, partly due to being in contention to repeat his 2018 Race to Dubai title late in the season. This year, he’ll take the weeks before each major off to prepare even more thoroughly, save from the week before the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black when he’s set to host the British Masters at his home Hillside G.C.
“Preparation-wise, I’ll do everything I can, and we’ll see,” Fleetwood said of this year’s majors after finishing T-17 at The Masters, 2nd between a Brooks Koepka-Dustin Johnson sandwhich at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, T-12 at The Open and T-25 at the PGA Championship last season.
“Those really, I mean, they are sort of your career-defining weeks in a way. It’s nice that I’ve been close, but unfortunately, that’s just not relative when they roll around again.
“You can never count on that too much [peaking for the bigs] with the way the game is, but hopefully do the right things to prepare well and I might have a chance again. Absolutely, the majors, I would love to give myself the best possible chance.”
With the PGA Championship moving from its traditional August timeslot to May this year, much of Fleetwood’s focus after the Desert Swing will be in the United States. He’s happy with the new scheduling but knows after last season he’ll still have to pace himself if he has another shot at the Race to Dubai title.
“Funny thing, [last year’s] Race to Dubai wasn’t really a thing until it got really later on in the year and the game does funny things to you when there’s something to push for,” said Fleetwood who eventually finished runner-up in the overall standings to his best pal on tour and Ryder Cup sidekick Francesco Molinari.
“I played Hong Kong after the DP World, and I think before December even started, I think I played 33 or 34 events, and that was two team events, as well. That’s a lot. That’s like too much.
“For the four weeks of December, I didn’t even feel like touching a club. I had to go chip a few balls with the kids and stuff, but it wasn’t on my agenda. It was a nice break.”
Fleetwood is slowly getting back into the swing of things after just making the cut in Abu Dhabi last week before going on to a share of 42nd place on -5, 13 shots adrift of champion Shane Lowry.
“It’s not that you’re not ready to come back but just actually easing into that sort of practice in the New Year. Last week felt good and this week felt even more sort of passionate about the game again.”
“Overall, I feel sharp. I feel like I’m sort of getting into the game again a little bit. Last week, not necessarily that I wasn’t trying, I was a little bit flat at times but I was trying my hardest. So hopefully it bodes well because I’ve always loved the golf course. I just haven’t put the performances in that I would hope to.”
Fleetwood put a new TaylorMade M6 driver and P-7TW irons, stamped with the initials of Woods, into play in Abu Dhabi and they’ve remained in the bag for this week after the benching of his beloved old Nike blades.
After finishing T-6 at last year’s Desert Classic, he’s looking forward to the challenge of a Majlis layout stiffened by some gnarly rough.
“The rough’s up a little bit thicker from what I can see, and the rough’s up a little bit around the greens. They brought the greens in last year but there was a lot of fringe, so you were still putting a lot of time if you miss the green. It’s definitely a little bit more of a test for sure.
“It’s funny because last year I felt like I played awful around here and it’s my best result ever on the golf course. I feel like my game’s much better than last week, just in practise that I’ve had. I came here on Sunday to do some work on my putting, which clearly needed some work and that’s getting better.”
With Tiger Woods about to start his year at The Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, Fleetwood wasn’t going to get away without his thoughts on the former world No.1.
“Yeah, definitely,” Fleetwood said when asked if he could see Tiger contending again in 2019.
“I was lucky enough to play with him a few times last year, and I thought if you didn’t know he was Tiger Woods, if he was just a random player that you see out on tour every week, you’d have just watched him and say: This guy is due a win or this guy, he’s trending in the right direction for sure.
“He’s very, very close, and that’s without him being Tiger Woods. I’m pretty sure he’ll be up there. If I were a betting man, I would have a little flutter on him winning a major this year but again, who knows.”
