GOLF – Tommy Fleetwood hopes home-field advantage will lead the two-time Grand Slam runner-up to his first major title this week at The Open Championship.
The 35-year-old Englishman grew up down the road from Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, site of the final major on this season’s PGA Tour calendar.
“It’s obviously very, very special. I think for anybody that was lucky enough to grow up in the town of Southport. It’s such a golfing town, and The Open at Birkdale holds such a special place in the area,” Fleetwood said at yesterday’s pre-tournament press conference.
“Yeah, it’s a dream just to be competing in an Open here, so I feel very, very lucky. Still have lots of memories from the 2017 Open here. Yeah, just excited for the opportunity to play in front of everybody. It’s very rare to have an opportunity to play a tournament, let alone The Open, in the town where you grew up in front of fans that were all there to support you. Very excited.”
Fleetwood enters the 154th Open ranked No. 9 in the world.
He has finished in the top five in all four Grand Slams in his career, including second place at the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, where Irishman Shane Lowry ran away to win by six strokes.
This year, Fleetwood finished T11 at the US Open, T33 at the Masters and missed the cut at the PGA Championship.
He also has two other top-10 efforts in The Open Championship: T4 in 2022 and T10 in 2023.
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