When everything was going so wrong, Tommy Fleetwood only wanted to think about what went right. And now that his trophy case is filling faster than he might have imagined, his focus turned to what was lacking.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of what makes Fleetwood one of the more compelling characters in golf.<\/p>\n
Scottie Scheffler is the best player. He proved that (again) with his six victories and two more majors \u2014 by four shots at the PGA Championship, by five shots at the British Open \u2014 that moved him within one major of the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy had the most memorable season filled with the rawest emotion, from pure joy at finally winning the Masters to defiance in the face of appalling abuse at the Ryder Cup. He shut up the New York crowd mostly with his club, occasionally with his mouth.<\/p>\n
And where does Fleetwood fit in?<\/p>\n
He simply endeared himself to fans everywhere by handling losing \u2014 and these were tough losses \u2014 and winning with equal amounts of grace and gratitude, and no shortage of honesty.<\/p>\n
He won the DP World India Championship on Sunday for his third victory in three months, including the Ryder Cup, perhaps the most meaningful. And then his thoughts turned to the European Tour\u2019s final two events, and the majors next year. That\u2019s where he felt he was lacking.<\/p>\n
The rate of winning feels like a long time coming.<\/p>\n
Right when that monkey on his back was turning into a gorilla, Fleetwood finally won on American soil at the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup. And then a month later, he went 4-1 in leading Europe to another Ryder Cup victory. It took a late rally by Justin Thomas to keep Fleetwood from a perfect week. It still felt like one.<\/p>\n
And then on Sunday at Delhi Golf Club, he rallied from a two-shot shot deficit to cap an amazing three months. All feels right.<\/p>\n
So what could be wrong?<\/p>\n
\u201cAs good as the season has been, it was a poor major year for me,\u201d Fleetwood said Sunday, more a statement of fact than someone seeing the glass half-empty. He didn\u2019t have a top 10 in the four majors for the first time since 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t come close to being in contention or competing in those majors,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s something I\u2019ll look back on and be slightly disappointed in, but also take away the lessons and look at what I could do better going into next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
He will work at it because that\u2019s what Fleetwood does. Win or lose, it\u2019s always the next one, no excuses and no complaints.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always something to play for. There\u2019s always something else that comes up. There\u2019s always something else that you will end up striving for no matter how high or low you sit in any kind of rankings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For what felt like the longest time, there was always someone else.<\/p>\n
Brooks Koepka held him off at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and Nick Taylor beat him with a 72-foot eagle putt in the Canadian Open. And there were two that Fleetwood gave away this year, losing late leads in the Travelers Championship and FedEx St. Jude Championship.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that he doesn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m upset now. I\u2019m angry,\u201d Fleetwood said at the Travelers, where a one-shot lead turned into a one-shot loss to Keegan Bradley on the final hole. \u201cI would love to just go and sulk somewhere, and maybe I will. But there\u2019s just no point making it a negative for the future, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an art to winning and an art to losing, and Fleetwood is good at both. That\u2019s a big reason he connects so easily with people.<\/p>\n
Most telling was the Canadian Open two years ago when he was on the cusp of his first PGA Tour title until Taylor holed an eagle putt that looked like it rolled across five provinces, making him the first Canadian winner of his national open in 69 years.<\/p>\n
Taylor threw his putter in the air, an image that now part of the tournament\u2019s logo. Watching this euphoric scene was Fleetwood, wearing the warmest smile, his arm around Taylor\u2019s shoulder. Disappointment gave way to appreciating a big moment for Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to be angry or grumpy about someone having their moment,\u201d he said. \u201dIt was their time. You just hope that yours comes at some point, and you have a load of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now he has a load of them, at least in the last three months, with hopes more are to follow. And that\u2019s why Sunday in India was no time for a victory lap, just like losing in Memphis was no time to sulk.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still driven to try and be as good as I can possibly be, and I\u2019ll look forward to getting to work. I\u2019ll look forward to practicing,\u201d he said. \u201cI still have so much to do in my career, and I know that each day how I think and how I act and how I practice and how I work goes towards those things. Whether I achieve all the things that I set out to do or not is a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has Abu Dhabi and Dubai this year. And then it\u2019s tackling the majors, and it hasn\u2019t been all bad. He remains the only player to shoot 63 in the final round of a U.S. Open twice, at Shinnecock Hills in 2018 and Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.<\/p>\n
Golfers seeking their first major aren\u2019t picky about which one, but it\u2019s hard to overlook the British Open returning to Royal Birkdale next year in his hometown of Southport. Is that asking too much?<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
On The Fringe analyzes the biggest topics in golf during the season. AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/p>\n
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When everything was going so wrong, Tommy Fleetwood only wanted to think about what went right. And now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-231407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}