​SOUTHPORT, England – The legend of Tommy Fleetwood sneaking onto the Royal Birkdale course as a youngster to practice near the fifth hole has grown into a story that fans love to tell, but the man himself wants to set the record straight on a few details. “I did it once or twice. It wasn’t like I did it every day,” he said during a Monday press conference ahead of the 154th British Open. He has spoken about the matter before, clarifying, “If you live five minutes away, you’re going to try to get on when you can. I might have snuck in and hit the odd shot. But that’s about as far as it goes. Yeah, it’s very cool. It was a course I would have crept onto now and again. The fifth used to be much more open, and now there are fences and bushes there, so that’s changed. My dad now walks the dog, and you start to the right of the 18th green, then you can walk all the way around past 17, along the back of the 16th green, and eventually you reach the hillside for a long, continuous walk. It’s a very cool walk.”
Fleetwood, 35, remains in hot pursuit of that elusive first major championship, with the event located quite close to where he grew up. He learned the game at nearby Formby Hall, where he once won the club championship—the moment that earned him a place on the club’s board—and he remains a member to this day, with the Formby venue home to a Tommy Fleetwood Academy. He also joined Hillside Golf Club, another storied neighboring course to Royal Birkdale, when he turned professional. Today, Fleetwood is beloved almost everywhere he goes, but nowhere more than at home, where his image is as ubiquitous as the town’s pride: faces on signs and murals painted on light posts line the streets.
“I’ve always felt incredibly lucky with the support I’ve received from around the world, but it’s the people who are emotionally invested in me that makes this so special,” he said. “It doesn’t go unnoticed by me.”
Fleetwood first attended Open Championship play at Birkdale in 1998, when he was only seven years old. He may have come up short on the practice greens that day, but not for lack of effort. He remembers getting five minutes with Tiger Woods, yet cherishing more the chance to spend time with Colin Montgomerie and to attend a clinic hosted by Lee Janzen, the U.S. Open champion at the time. That week fueled his ambition to become a professional golfer.
Nearly a decade later, Fleetwood came up short of qualifying at age 17, losing 3 and 2 in the final of the 2008 British Amateur at Turnberry to Reinier Saxton of the Netherlands. “Upsetting,” he called the experience of being denied a home Open appearance, a disappointment that kept him away from watching the pros play for the Claret Jug at that moment. By 2017, he had a rough start but managed to rally, make the cut, and finish tied for 27th.
Last season, Fleetwood added the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup to his resume, delivering the long-awaited answer to the nagging question of when he would win on the PGA Tour. As he continues his pursuit of a first major, the event remains even more meaningful because it is held near the place where his professional dream began, and his hometown continues to cheer him on at every step.