So it has been in the run-up to this Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. Tommy Fleetwood may not be a native of the city that gave us the Beatles, but he’s the next best thing. The 32-year-old hails from nearby Southport, a fact that has inevitably led to an increase in attention prior to the 151st playing of golf’s oldest major.

Happily, Fleetwood got that aspect of this endlessly complex game right on Day 1. His five-under par 66 was marked by an air of calm that augurs well for the 54 holes that lie between the World No. 21 and what would be a maiden major victory.

“The level of attention Tommy has been getting has actually helped as this event got closer,” says his caddie, Ian Finnis. “Because there were so many people chasing him, he realised he can’t be listening to everyone. So the focus shifted to his golf. Which meant he took control rather than listen to 500 different people. He’s too polite at times. I say that as his mate, more than his caddie. Normally, he can’t say ‘no’ enough. But coming in here he’s just been doing his own thing. That’s what I told him, ‘For once, look after yourself. Be selfish at times. It doesn’t make you a bad person.’

“He’s been like that since the US Open to be honest,” continued Finnis. “It’s no coincidence that he has started well here. That hasn’t been happening for a while, especially at majors. That was another thing I told him: ‘This is the week we start well.’ He needs to hear that more. Everyone hides away from telling him that truth. Too many have been telling him, ‘You’re doing great’ after he finishes in the top five. Which is why we had a chat about him being really ready to play this week. To that end, he’s actually done less of everything.”

Indeed, there is much evidence to back up Finnis’ plain-spoken contention. Too often recently, Fleetwood has started somewhere between badly and slowly in major championships. Take last year’s Open at St Andrews, where he eventually pulled up in a tie for fourth place. But he did so after kicking off with a level-par round of 72. The three men who ended up ahead of him: Cameron Smith, Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy shot 67, 64 and 66, respectively, on Day 1.

Fleetwood was playing catch-up, something he actually did rather well. His aggregate of 202 over the next three rounds was one-shot worse than Smith, the eventual champion, but it was better than both Young and McIlroy.

“As first rounds go, that’s absolutely the one you wanted,” Fleetwood said of his six-birdie and one-bogey effort. “It is one my most enjoyable opening grounds ever, for sure. One of the things we’ve said this week is what an amazing time it is for us to be out on the golf course with that support, playing in an Open. It’s very, very special.”

All of which is not to say that Fleetwood has arrived on Merseyside short of form. “Bubbling under” might be an appropriate description of his recent play. A playoff loss at last month’s Canadian Open was immediately followed by a T-5 finish in the US Open at Los Angeles Country Club (where he started with a 73 and finished with a 63). And last week he was a solid T-6 in the Scottish Open won by Rory McIlroy.

So this is a change of pace. Quicker than has been the case over the past few months, he is off and running. Resounding and prolonged cheers from a crowd dominated by his ‘own people’ have helped too.

“You can easily put too much pressure on yourself,” said Fleetwood. “You can easily try too hard. But just having that support and people egging you on, whether you’ve hit a good shot or a bad shot, good hole, bad hole. It just pushes you on. As I said at the start of the week, I’m very, very lucky to be able to play an Open so close to home. It’s an amazing opportunity and an amazing thing to have the chance to do. All I want to do now is keep working hard, keep playing, and keep putting myself in position. Hopefully it’ll be my turn to win soon.”

No time like the present. And no place like home to get it done.

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Two weeks ago, Justin Rose was nowhere to be seen on what used to be called the Order of Merit. But now, after two successive wins, the former US Open champion is long-time leader Fleetwood’s closest challenger for the $1,250,000 bonus that goes to the man who finishes atop the season-long contest.

With a closing six-under 65, Rose claimed the Turkish Airlines Open title—seven days after winning the WGC-HSBC Champions in China—and moved to within €134,838 of Fleetwood at the top of the money list.

So, is a stirring climax to the 2017 season in store? Well, yes and no. Fleetwood, the impressively hirsute Englishman, remains a strong favorite to prevail. Rose’s absence from this coming week’s Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa will only add to the financial gap between the leading pair, who will reconvene in Dubai for the European Tour finale, the DP World Tour Championship.

All of which is for the future. In the meantime, Rose was understandably keen to savor a 10th victory on his home circuit (in his 283rd appearance) and the first back-to-back wins of his already distinguished career.

“I like achieving new firsts,” he said. “But the Race to Dubai is still in Tommy’s hands. I just know I need to go and play well in Dubai. That’s been my mentality from the outset, and it’s not going to change. But it’s exciting to be within touching distance.”

Speaking of which, starting two shots behind the overnight leaders, Shane Lowry and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Rose, the Olympic champion and highest-ranked player in the field, emerged from a congested leader board—at one point early on the back nine, as many as nine players were within one shot of the lead—to claim the €985,485 first prize and, not insignificantly, get further inside young Fleetwood’s hairy head.

At the end of a bogey-free weekend that left him T-23 for the week, Fleetwood was asked if he was suddenly a “Frittelli fan” as Dylan Frittelli appeared to be one to watch over the closing holes.

“I’m a fan of quite a few players on the board,” he said with a smile. “But Justin is clearly peaking. I just need to build a bit of momentum. This week I had no momentum and last week I had no momentum. They have been OK weeks, but just nothing quite going forward that way.”

Maybe 90 minutes later, it came down to this. With Frittelli already in the clubhouse on 17 under at the Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort, Rose and playing partner Nicolas Colsaerts arrived on the 18th tee needing pars on the 410-yard, uphill par 4 to tie the South African. As it turned out, Rose went one better, holing from 12 feet for a birdie that was good enough to clinch victory only after Belgium’s first-ever Ryder Cup player missed from roughly 10 feet to force a playoff.

All in all, it was a fittingly exciting ending to a last hour of play that had a bit of everything, especially if birdies are what take your fancy. Frittelli, who remarkably chipped-in five times during the last two rounds, made two birdies over the last four holes and eight in total en route to a closing 64 highlighted by a front-nine 29. Colsaerts made three birdies in succession from the 15th and six for the day. And Rose’s closing effort was his fourth dip under par in his last seven holes. Only twice over the 72 holes did he drop shots to par, a double bogey at the second in his opening round and a bogey on the third hole three days later.

“Sometimes you don’t have to birdie every single hole to win,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t have to do as much as you think you have to do. But, as it turned out today, a couple of guys did really step up, and it was a day where you had to do something to win. So it was nice to birdie two of the last three. Over the first three days I didn’t putt so well towards the end of my rounds. Today it was the opposite. Again, it is nice to know I did it when I had to.”

As for Colsaerts, the big-hitting Brussels-native was happy enough to have been back in contention at the end of an inconsistent season that had previously produced only two top-10 finishes.

“The juices were flowing,” Colsaerts said. “It was great to be able to push it until the end. The finish was great. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to almost close in such a fashion. So I guess there are a lot of positives to take out of this week. I’m very satisfied with the way I handled the last couple of holes, which gave me the opportunity to have a chance on 18. It’s a little sour right now but I have no regrets.”

A little further down the leader board, last year’s champion Thorbjorn Olesen put up a stout defense of his title with a fifth-place finish, one shot behind former Open and PGA champion Padraig Harrington. And Englishman Eddie Pepperell—“I’m definitely trending”—recorded his sixth top-10 finish in his last seven starts when a closing 67 took him to T-6 alongside Aphibarnrat.

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