Tommy Fleetwood has come close to the winner’s circle at majors throughout his career only to routinely fall short.
The 33-year-old Englishman is intent on changing that narrative this week at the Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland.
“I try not to dwell on it too much. I get frustrated like anybody else. I get down on myself like anybody else,” Fleetwood said on Wednesday, one day before the start of the tournament.
“I don’t win anywhere near as much as I would like, and I’m probably not sort of in a position in the game where I want to be, even though I’m doing perfectly well. It’s not where I believe I can be, and the results don’t always show that.”
Fleetwood, who is winless on the PGA Tour, enters this week No. 25 in the FedEx Cup standings. He made his first tour appearance in 2013 and has seven wins on the European Tour.
Fleetwood made a sterling challenge at the Open in 2019 before finishing in second place at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland.
He then made a spirited run at the landmark 150th Open at St. Andrews 2022 before ending up tied for fourth place with Viktor Hovland. He followed that up with a T10 last year at the Open.
“Like I said, I try not to dwell on it,” Fleetwood said. “I try to focus on positives and what I need to do to actually get to where I want to be or contend in tournaments and win tournaments. I try to focus on that every day, but yeah, to be sure, the game’s annoying. Even when you play well, you come off frustrated because you might have missed a putt or you might have finished a shot or two behind where you thought you could.
“You always start a new week fresh, and I try to focus on that as much as possible really.”
He also finished second at the U.S. Open in 2018, tied for fifth at the PGA Championship in 2022 and tied for third at the Masters this year.
Despite the lack of results, Fleetwood said he is still motivated to compete on the golf course.
“I still love golf. I think golf is my absolute favorite thing to do, and I still — I don’t believe that I’ve reached my potential at all in what I can do,” he said. “I think I’m still very driven by that. I still wake up every day and want to be the best player I can be, and I still want to find things that will make me better and what I can improve on. There’s still so many tournaments that I enjoy playing, tournaments that I want to win.
“Yeah, until — I’m sure one day I might wake up and might not have the same enthusiasm for it, but it’s never left me yet, and it continues. I’ll wake up tomorrow excited to play The Open. Whether I play good or bad, I might be disappointed, but I’ll probably want to go and practice afterwards and see if I can get better.
“Yeah, like I say, it’s still my favorite thing to do. I love the game.”
–Field Level Media