{"id":60171,"date":"2025-08-11T22:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T22:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/60171\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T22:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T22:31:13","slug":"tommy-fleetwoods-optimism-is-delusional-time-to-admit-theres-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/60171\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Fleetwood\u2019s optimism is delusional \u2014 time to admit there\u2019s a problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

The good thing about professional sport when it all goes wrong is that there is always next week. The bad thing for Tommy Fleetwood is that next week is in the United States again.<\/p>\n

The FedEx Cup play-off circus moves on to Caves Valley in Maryland and the BMW Championship, with Fleetwood ruminating on another missed opportunity to break his American duck.<\/p>\n

Sunday evening\u2019s late unravelling in Memphis, following on from the Travelers Championship collapse in June, revealed a player stuck in a loop of agonising near-misses on the PGA Tour. <\/p>\n

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Worryingly for Fleetwood, the storyline of a player who just cannot win in America is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. He looked like someone fearing the worst when the tournament reached crunch time.<\/p>\n

As Justin Rose ran towards the fire over the closing holes to take the FedEx St Jude Championship to a play-off against US Open champion JJ Spaun \u2014 which he won at the third extra hole<\/a> \u2014 Fleetwood retreated.<\/p>\n

Leading on the 16th tee, his golf over the last three holes was unrecognisable from what had gone before and he fell away to finish in a share of third. It was a familiar refrain stateside. <\/p>\n

\u201cI did a lot of good things again. On the back nine I managed to get myself ahead but Justin and JJ did great and I just didn\u2019t quite do enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Tommy<\/p>\n

Fleetwood praised the way his playing partner Rose performed in the final round<\/p>\n

STEVE ROBERTS-IMAGN IMAGES\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to win and I was next to someone who played unbelievable golf down the stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these experiences and these close calls, there\u2019s no point in allowing them to have a negative effect on what happens next. What would be the point?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great week. I did a ton of good stuff, and as disappointed as I am, I have to try to find the strength to make it all a positive experience, go again and put myself in that position again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accentuating the positives fits Fleetwood\u2019s personality, but there comes a time when sunny optimism becomes delusional. <\/p>\n

He now has 43 top-ten finishes and 29 top fives without a win on the PGA Tour. He has to confront the reality of that situation. Something is getting in his way. Himself.<\/p>\n

When the heat has come on, his game has begun to crack under the pressure. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a mental block about winning in America. There can\u2019t be any doubt about that,\u201d said Don Macpherson, a leading sports mind coach, who has worked with a string of top golfers including former World No1 Ian Woosnam.<\/p>\n

\u201cTommy can play under pressure \u2014 he has won ten times around the world. He has also won seven of his 12 Ryder Cup matches and if there\u2019s pressure anywhere it\u2019s a Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he can get over the line in situations he is more comfortable with but that statistic of 43 top tens on the PGA Tour without a win is shocking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things start to go wrong they go wrong far too quickly. His body language on the course is really good until things go wrong and then instantly it becomes terrible.<\/p>\n

\"Tommy<\/p>\n

Fleetwood started the final round one shot ahead of Rose<\/p>\n

AP PHOTO\/GEORGE WALKER IV<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monkey we all have in our heads is out of its cage and telling him he is going to mess up again and he doesn\u2019t seem to have any tools to stop it. He seems to pour petrol on to the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdrenaline is lethal in a precision sport like golf because a player loses all feel. He needs to equip himself with the tools to deal with one bad shot \u2014 breathe, relax and put it into context \u2014 and be able to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleetwood\u2019s mistakes over the last three holes at TPC Southwind were contagious \u2014 one followed another in a scenario that proved hard to watch for his many wellwishers. <\/p>\n

One of the genuine good guys in golf, the 34-year-old is a hugely popular figure on both sides of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Take a step back and his game is in good shape. He is eighth in the FedEx Cup standings and up to No13 in the world while his and Rose\u2019s performances on Sunday confirmed their qualification for Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup team next month.<\/p>\n

However, until Fleetwood actually wins in the United States he will be dogged by questions over his inability to do so.<\/p>\n

In his book How To Master Your Monkey Mind, Macpherson refers to \u201caccidental mind coaches\u201d \u2014 prophets of doom who reinforce a negative situation.<\/p>\n

Put another way, all the talk surrounding Fleetwood\u2019s failure to convert his chances on the PGA Tour is undoubtedly perpetuating the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to work with a golfer called Lee Slattery, who was also from Southport and also recognised as being one of the nicest guys on the Tour. He couldn\u2019t win on the European Tour,\u201d Macpherson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kept being asked by people when he was going to win and why he couldn\u2019t get it done and these accidental mind coaches got inside his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same with Tommy. The only difference is that it\u2019s on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cLee did win in the end in Spain and I hope Tommy does too in America, because it\u2019s sad to see at the moment. Hopefully he can get some help to learn to control the monkey mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s desperate to win in America, maybe too desperate. Unless he changes something he might never do so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The good thing about professional sport when it all goes wrong is that there is always next week.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-60171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}