years-long journey to a PGA Tour win<\/a> cracked some mysterious popularity code that the Tour\u2019s execs have been studying ever since. Rafael Nadal and Michael Phelps sent congratulatory messages. Posting on X, Tiger Woods wrote: \u201cNo one deserves it more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201c[It was] f\u2013king amazing,\u201d says Fleetwood\u2019s putting coach Phil Kenyon, who watched nervously that Sunday from a hotel room in the Bahamas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI never had any doubt in Tommy\u2019s capabilities. You just don\u2019t want it to build up into something that it isn\u2019t, so it was more relief [than anything else], just for him to get the monkey off his back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Fleetwood\u2019s breakthrough was as foreseeable as that wine headache in Dubai, and it uncorked a level of play he\u2019s never displayed before. In September 2025, he led all Ryder Cuppers in Strokes Gained, going 4 and 1 for triumphant Team Europe. Three weeks later, he won the DP World India Championship. Each successive achievement sparked the same question: What\u2019s different, mate?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The truth: Tommy still doesn\u2019t know.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He wants to believe his recent form \u2014 and his ascent to career-high World No. 3 \u2014 is just how he plays golf now. He swears he made the same on-course decisions all summer, both in victory and defeat, proving to himself (and plenty of golf statisticians) that results are random but consistency is key.\u00a0Kenyon likens it to Kaizen philosophy, a Japanese business concept of slow, incremental \u2014 even unnoticeable \u2014 gains that build to something greater.<\/p>\n
A little fire never hurt, either. In Dubai, at the DP World Championship in November, Fleetwood\u2019s Ryder Cup teammate, Rory McIlroy, spent 10 silent seconds pondering the idea of What\u2019s different about Tommy?<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never say that Tommy questioned how much he wanted it,\u201d McIlroy began. \u201cBut he\u2019s always been so nice. So nice. And then I\u2019m like, Is he too nice? Because you need to have just that little bit of edge or prick in you \u2014 whatever you want to call it. I know I have it, and I feel like that\u2019s what you need to win. I think it\u2019s harder for Tommy to feel that because of how empathetic he is. But this year, I feel like he\u2019s developed that little bit of edge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Talk to people around Fleetwood and it\u2019s clear that McIlroy isn\u2019t the only one who thinks so. Fleetwood, on the other hand, needs a minute to process it. \u201cYeah,\u201d he says, shrugging his shoulders. \u201cBut I\u2019d like to think nice guys can win too.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tommy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tommy2.jpg\")
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Ben Cope<\/p>\n
![\"Tommy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fleetwood5.jpg\")
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Getty Images \/ Jared C. Tilton<\/p>\n
IF FLEETWOOD\u2019S GOLF CAREER looks like a vector inching upward, his golf life is more elliptical, somehow always returning to the intersection of Selworthy and Granville roads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he was 17 and growing up in Southport, a town of 94,000 on England\u2019s west coast, he raced over to Selworthy and Granville, fresh off earning his driver\u2019s license. That\u2019s where the nicest houses in town were, closest to the Irish Sea, each of them a modernist break from the redbrick norm. He\u2019d slow down to make the hard-right turns, dreaming about which plot he\u2019d buy when his golf got so good that he could afford it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His more famously devious visits to Selworthy and Granville started when Tommy was 8. On special occasions, he and his dad, Pete, used the intersection to sneak onto Royal Birkdale, the private club in town. They\u2019d walk the muddy footpath, veer off into the trees, eventually stumbling onto the 5th tee of the course that will host this year\u2019s Open Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"royal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/selworthy.jpg\")
\n The intersection of Selworthy and Granville, marked in red, that Tommy Fleetwood and his father would use to sneak on Royal Birkdale\u2019s 5th hole.<\/p>\n
Google Earth<\/p>\n
The Fleetwoods lived more modest lives than those of the Birkdale membership. His mother, Sue, was a hairdresser; Pete worked in construction. They raised two sons in a tiny home. Pete introduced them to golf at the local muni, where 16-and-unders played for free. He sawed down full-size clubs to junior length, and it\u2019s a good thing he did. By age 6, Tommy\u2019s golfing brilliance was already gracing the local sports pages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was only a year into primary school when the papers dubbed him the Southport Starlet and dared to ask: Could this be the next Tiger Woods? Tommy was a mainstay in those pages throughout his adolescence, pictured hitting balls at a youth clinic with Lee Janzen, always flashing that toothy grin under a backward TaylorMade hat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was exceptionally gifted,\u201d Kenyon says, \u201cbut he practiced a lot. Whenever I went down to hit balls at Formby [Hall]\u2014 which was a lot, because I was a golf geek \u2014 he\u2019d always be there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hit it farther, higher, more consistently than anyone else,\u201d remembers Jim Payne, who worked with Fleetwood from his junior days to the launch of his pro career. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t compare him at his age with another junior because, really, there wasn\u2019t one. You were comparing him with somebody three years older.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alan Thompson, likely the most impactful swing whisperer of Fleetwood\u2019s career, called it intimidating. \u201cYou could see he was great. When you\u2019d speak to him, he\u2019d fix you with this gaze. I can distinctly remember thinking, What\u2019s this lad thinking here?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Liverpool](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TommyTiger.jpeg\")
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![\"Tommy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SomethingEls.jpeg\")
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All his coaches mention that intentionality, which clearly hasn\u2019t been lost over the years. For the majority of that 17th-tee hang at JGE in Dubai, Tommy\u2019s phone is 20 feet away, face down on the table. He prefers small-group affairs but can\u2019t help asking questions of strangers rather than shoo them away. Like any elite pro, he shakes hundreds of hands every day, but he seems to understand the value of giving a piece of himself to anyone who asks: the struggling, 23-handicapper; the freelance photographer; even the two teens who, on a nearby road, screeched their dad\u2019s SUV to a halt so they could bound onto the tee and beg for an autograph.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fleetwood makes it easy to agree with McIlroy. So nice \u2014 the degree to which will be tested more than ever in July when the Starlet returns home, and to Royal Birkdale, along with 155 of the best golfers in the world. \u201cIt\u2019s probably my biggest dream in the game \u2014 to win that tournament,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A visit to Southport reminds you that it takes a village. Fleetwood was given free rein as a youngster at the local Formby Hall facility, where he won club championships back then and now has a lounge and academy named after him. The majority of his coaches hail from the greater Liverpool area. In 2016, during what he calls \u201cthe worst year of my career,\u201d Fleetwood made one panicked call and sent one frantic text from the Shenzhen International in China. The former went to his dad, who still calls Southport home, and the latter to swing coach Alan Thompson (better known as Thommo), who three years earlier had stopped working with Fleetwood. Thommo jumped into action, organizing a team sit-down and full reset for when Tommy returned to the UK. It took months, but by the end of that year they got it right. Part of the reshuffle was a new caddie, Ian Finnis, who has known Fleetwood since he was a boy and has now carried his clubs for a decade. Finnis lives just 12 miles south of Birkdale. During the Open, he\u2019ll probably commute by train.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was at Birkdale in 1998 that 7-year-old Tommy first attended an Open and first saw Tiger Woods in the flesh. In 2017, when Fleetwood played in the Open at Birkdale, his face was plastered on lampposts across town. His grade school alma mater, Scarisbrook Hall, pulled hundreds of kids into the schoolyard to hold up a Tommy Fleetwood banner for a good luck video. The locals holed up at The Golden Monkey, around where Pete Fleetwood still enjoys the occasional pint \u2014 they remember what Tommy wore and where he sat the last time he came through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With that pride comes a bit of longing and lust. For all that England\u2019s Golf Coast offers, with some of the best courses in the world, it has struggled to produce a player with real staying power. Now they\u2019ve got one and are eager to make the most of it. Amanda Cooke, who manages the pro shop at Southport Golf Links, where Tommy first started playing, just wants him to visit for five minutes and a photo. The image of him beaming at the local muni would do wonders for it and their shoestring budget. \u201cTommy Fleetwoods are like hen\u2019s teeth,\u201d Cooke says. \u201cThey don\u2019t come around more than once every hundred years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Six months ahead of the Open, it all begs two questions, one answer unknowable and the other absolutely certain: Will Fleetwood\u2019s greatest-ever form still be here when he needs it most? And how will Southport handle it if it is?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re definitely not old enough to remember this, but you might have seen footage,\u201d says Norman Marshall, Tommy\u2019s first coach and the head pro at the local Fleetwood Academy. \u201cIt\u2019ll be like when the Beatles first landed in America. That\u2019s what it\u2019s gonna be like.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marshall\u2019s being cheeky, but you can tell he believes it. And he\u2019s not alone. Alan Thompson agrees. \u201cIt\u2019ll be absolutely mayhem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Phil Kenyon makes it a hat trick: \u201cIt\u2019ll be mental.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABOUT 3,500 MILES FROM SOUTHPORT (and about 60 degrees warmer) is Discovery Downtown, a 23rd-floor, open-air rooftop club in Dubai \u2014 the epitome of affluence and the site of our cover story shoot. A swanky extension of Discovery Dunes \u2014 the first private golf course in Dubai \u2014 it stands close enough to the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, that the skyscraper\u2019s luminous reflection of the morning sun serves as secondary lighting for the photography crew and stadium lighting for an impromptu game of Ping-Pong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After sitting for 45 minutes of grooming, Fleetwood slips into a dark Loro Piana suit, causing his pristine smile to pop even more. In between camera flashes, he\u2019s distracted by the sight \u2014 hundreds of feet below and at least a thousand yards away \u2014 of a new TAG Heuer retail shop. He\u2019s a brand ambassador.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The morning checks every box for how different life can look when pro golf takes over: the sky-high photo shoot, the Italian designer threads, the watch sponsorship, all in taxfree Dubai, which is attracting more pros every year. But for at least a week now \u2014 since the DP World Tour Championship that closed out Fleetwood\u2019s thrilling 2025 campaign \u2014 a press conference question from the event has been top of mind: What would that kid from Southport think of his career?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat little boy from Southport, there\u2019s still loads of things he dreamed of that I, the older Tommy, haven\u2019t been able to achieve,\u201d Fleetwood said at the time. \u201cBut I\u2019ll keep striving for that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t bother to share specifics in such a public setting, but he finds power in stating his dreams plainly, if only to himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should never change even when you get older,\u201d he says, \u201cbut when you\u2019re young, dreams can go as far as you want, and that\u2019s how it should be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll jot them down on paper, big or small, and even meditate on them, visualizing each vivid detail. It worked for him in October, when his 8-year-old son, Frankie, guilt-tripped his dad about timing his wins better. Tommy had never won with Frankie in attendance, meaning Frankie had never known the thrill of running onto the green for a victory hug. A week later in India, Fleetwood committed the idea to paper, then visualized it throughout Sunday\u2019s back nine. He won by two and Frankie got his hug, one final reminder that in a golf year dominated by Scottie Scheffler and remembered for McIlroy\u2019s indelible Masters win, we may have learned the most \u2014 about life, at least \u2014 from Tommy Fleetwood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During our shoot, he shares thoughts that feel like a window into his golfing soul. Like how the favorite token of his career is the silver medal he won at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Or why he\u2019s pursuing moments \u2014 or simply more Frankie hugs on the 18th green \u2014 far more than trophies. And why he wants to bring a Tommy Fleetwood Academy to numerous countries in Asia. We talk about how he maybe hasn\u2019t appreciated everything he\u2019s done because, well, there\u2019s always something else to achieve. Mondays are mandatory.<\/p>\n
Our chitchat is so persistent that at one point the photographer barks: \u201cOkay, now look at me this time. And no talking!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The silence lasts only minutes before we\u2019re onto a timely Tour debate. Would you rather have had Scottie Scheffler\u2019s 2024 season\u2014nine wins, one major \u2014 or\u00a0 Xander Schauffele\u2019s: two wins, both of them majors, one of them the Open Championship, the oldest tournament in the world?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I won two majors and one was the Open at Birkdale,\u201d Fleetwood says, pausing, then exhaling at the thought. \u201cMaybe I would just ride off into the sunset.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The photographer\u2019s flash hits him again. Maybe, just maybe, that Monday would be optional.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story was first published in the January-February 2026 issue of GOLF Magazine. The author can be reached at sean.zak@golf.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the final Sunday evening of Tommy Fleetwood\u2019s 2025 season, the reigning FedEx Cup Champion finally relaxes. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-426330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426330","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=426330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}