Tommy Fleetwood has been thinking about this coming July for some time. He makes no attempt to try and play the occasion down, nor bat questions back with cliches. This is not just another Major Championship. The 150th Open Championship at the Home of Golf is "the one".
The Southport pro has had numerous putts to win The Open... at Formby Hall, mainly, where he grew up playing. Lifting the Claret Jug is still the dream, although these days it's not so much of a fantasy. Runner-up to Shane Lowry at Royal Portrush in 2019, Fleetwood knows he has what it takes to go one better and fulfil a lifelong ambition.
"The Open is the event I've dreamed of since I was a kid," he says. "For as long as I play the game, that will be the one event I would choose to win."
"If I could choose one event to win and never play again, then it would be St Andrews. It's my favourite course. I love playing there. I love how the course plays differently every day. I love the history and I love the town, the people there. It's my dream event on my favourite course, so it's obviously something I'm very excited about."
Fleetwood made his Open Championship debut at Royal Liverpool in 2014. Despite the benefit of local knowledge and feeling quite at ease in the company of John Daly, the then 23-year-old missed the cut, as he did the following year at a blustery St Andrews. That one stung a bit. It wasn't the fact he missed the cut that rankled so much as his failure to perform in the kind of conditions he relishes.
This story is from the Summer 2022 edition of Golf Monthly.
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This story is from the Summer 2022 edition of Golf Monthly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Is it Time for the Presidents Cup to Be Scrapped? - The next instalment of the USA v Internationals match takes place in Canada at the end of September. But should the one-sided affair continue?
The next instalment of the USA v Internationals match takes place in Canada at the end of September. But should the one-sided affair continue? Why would anyone even suggest such a drastic course of action? It may sound harsh, but since the inaugural event in 1994, the International team has managed just one victory and one tie while the American team has won 12 times, including nine straight from 2005. It is 26 years since the International team's solitary success in 1998 at Royal Melbourne under the captaincy of the late Peter Thomson.
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