Does anyone have it better than Tommy Fleetwood right now? One of the most likable golfers on Earth has suddenly turned into a world-beater, winning tournaments and piling up Ryder Cup victories.
On Sunday he added another trophy to his case, wining the DP World India Championship at Delhi Golf Club in New Delhi, India. It’s Fleetwood’s eighth career DP World Tour title and adds to the success of his last couple of months.
In August, he won the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup title — including the $10 million bonus — to ease the sting of a series of close calls and finally kick the label as the best player to never have won on the PGA Tour. A month later he earned a team-high four points at the Ryder Cup, helping Europe win a rare road game.
“I think everybody needs something to push them or to motivate them,” Fleetwood said Sunday. “I apply myself in trying to achieve the best possible at all times, and there’s plenty of times where things haven’t gone my way, but the last two tournaments I’ve been in contention I’ve won, so maybe things are starting to even out a little bit.”
This week he was among a group of stars — including Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Viktor Hovland — playing the DP World Tour stop in India. Fleetwood held the 36-hole lead but trailed Keita Nakajima by two entering the final round.
Playing in the final pairing on Sunday, however, Fleetwood had extra motivation to pick up a victory — his son, Frankie, wanted to celebrate with him on the 18th green.
“We were playing golf last week. I mean, to be honest, he never shuts up, so there’s always something coming out of his mouth, and he just happened to say randomly, he said, ‘You know what you’ve never done?’ He said, ‘You’ve never won a tournament and I’ve been able to run on to the 18th green,’” Fleetwood said. “He just said it as a passing comment. I didn’t really say anything. I don’t think I said anything back to him, but I wrote it down when I got back, and I had it in my mind. I know that there’s events to come while we’re playing at home, and obviously I’m lucky that my family get to travel with me quite a lot. But it was something that I had wrote down. It was kind of this quote, it was: You have never won and I’ve run onto the green. That was the quote that was there, and that was something that would drive me.”
On Sunday, Fleetwood birdied four in a row from Nos. 7-10 to take a two-stroke lead over Nakajima, who managed just one birdie on the front nine. When Fleetwood stepped to the par-5 18th tee his lead was still two. He parred to shoot seven-under 65, finish 22 under and win by two.
Earlier in the week, the broadcast showed Frankie following his dad and mimicking his shots. On Sunday, Frankie was waiting by the 18th green.
“There’s going to be many more times where I hopefully get the chance to do that,” Fleetwood said. “But that was like all day today, had in my mind could I put myself in a position where I can actually make that moment happen. It’s just one of those little things it means a lot to me. It means so much to me. That was really cool. That’s what I wanted to do all day.”
Fleetwood’s eighth DP World Tour win also extends his season. He was not yet eligible for the two DP World Tour playoff events in November, but his win Sunday vaulted him from 94th to 25th in the Race to Dubai, making him eligible for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
“I’ve had such a great year, but there was a couple of things that disappointed me, and my run on the DP World Tour was one of those things,” Fleetwood said. “Just not being where I want to be in terms of the Order of Merit and things and how I’ve played when I have played this tour, that was something that was bothering me. This means a lot, this win.”
