{"id":232222,"date":"2025-10-17T19:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/232222\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T19:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:56:11","slug":"tommy-fleetwood-leads-in-india-rory-mcilroy-fights-to-keep-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/232222\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Fleetwood leads in India; Rory McIlroy fights to keep up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oct 17, 2025, 08:07 AM ET<\/p>\n

NEW DELHI — Tommy Fleetwood<\/a> kept up his strong finish to the season by shooting an 8-under 64 to take a one-stroke lead at the halfway point of the DP World India Championship as Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy<\/a> battled to stay in contention Friday.<\/p>\n

Over the past two months, Fleetwood has won the Tour Championship for his first PGA Tour title — picking up $10 million as the FedEx Cup champion in the process — and been the top points scorer at the Ryder Cup retained by Team Europe.<\/p>\n

Now the Englishman, up to No. 5 in the world rankings, is leading perhaps the most prestigious golf tournament ever to be staged in India after making eight birdies in a bogey-free second round to jump to 12-under par for the week.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

Fleetwood’s last birdie — from 8 feet at his last, No. 9 — left him clear of former Open champions Shane Lowry<\/a> (69) and Brian Harman<\/a> (65), who were tied for second place.<\/p>\n

Fleetwood described the course at the tight, tree-lined Delhi Golf Club as a “unique challenge for all of us.”<\/p>\n

“I haven’t hit more than a 5-wood,” he said. “It’s a test of patience. … If you hit it good off the tee, you’re going to have some short irons and wedges, and [you] feel like you’ve always got a chance to get it wrong. It’s such a waiting game.”<\/p>\n

A further three shots back was Ben Griffin<\/a>, a rookie for the Americans at the Ryder Cup, in a tie for seventh place at 8 under.<\/p>\n

McIlroy, who again didn’t put his driver in his bag, had back-to-back bogeys early in his back nine but responded by making birdie at four of his final six holes to shoot a second straight 69. He was at 6 under, along with fellow European team member Viktor Hovland<\/a> (67).<\/p>\n

As the No. 2-ranked McIlroy walked off No. 18 at the tree-lined Delhi Golf Club, he removed his cap and shook hands with India cricket great Sachin Tendulkar, a special guest for the tournament, at the back of the green.<\/p>\n

“It was a strong finish, got myself sort of back in the tournament. I need a strong start tomorrow,” McIlroy said.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would be changing his strategy off the tee over the weekend to get more aggressive in a bid to chase down Fleetwood, McIlroy said: “I don’t think so. I think if I’m struggling to hit fairways with my 2-iron, I’m not going to hit it with my driver.<\/p>\n

“Same strategy. Just have to hit it a little closer with my second shots and not miss as many putts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oct 17, 2025, 08:07 AM ET NEW DELHI — Tommy Fleetwood kept up his strong finish to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-232222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}