‘People’s Champion’ and ‘Fairway Jesus’ are nicknames that Tommy Fleetwood, the crowd-pleasing World No.5, has perhaps aptly earned.
With a majority of its fanbase showing conservative colours and its growing online presence inevitably leading to vitriol on social media, divisions in golf have been stark in recent years. The ugliness at this month’s Ryder Cup was a prime example.
Amid that, affection for Fleetwood has a rare uniting quality. Everyone loves him: left, right, or centre. His humble upbringing — similar to that of Rory McIlroy, the main crowd puller of this week’s DP World India Championship in New Delhi — as the son of a lorry driver in the small English town of Southport, has allowed golf to shed its elitist image, particularly in Europe. His flowing mane and easy-going charisma have earned him plenty of fanfare among the casuals; he’s as good with a club in his hands as he is with a microphone under his nose.
But let none of the affability fool you; his tactics are sharp and savvy, his golf has a competitive menace. He unleashed it during his sensational bogey-free eight-under par 64 in the second round of the DP World Tour event here on Friday, limiting mistakes without losing sight of scoring, his eight birdies on the day allowing him to take the sole clubhouse lead with a cumulative score of 12-under.
McIlroy was the true draw here again. Swarms of people arrived to watch him tee off in the afternoon, crowds that grew significantly in size from the already huge numbers that came on Thursday. He was not at his best here again, though, shooting another three-under 69 for a cumulative score of six under that saw him remain tied for 17th.
But Fleetwood tellingly turned a few members of the DGC patronage to his side too. By the time he putted for a birdie on his final hole after two phenomenally accurate approach shots landed him on the green, there were plenty of cheers among fans that dropped in to watch him finish his stellar round before the Rory-fest began.
“It has been a great two days,” Fleetwood would later declare.
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Old-fashioned course
The old-fashioned Lodhi course at the Delhi Golf Club (DGC) may have seemed on paper that it would be a breeze for the fleet of the world’s best golfers that descended upon the national capital this week. But two days of cautious golf have proven that is not necessarily the case.
The DGC has retained its prestige, with its unique, historic architecture and aesthetic backdrops of Mughal-era ruins, by not redrawing the map. The result is an exceptionally narrow yardage, with big trees lining the fairways and margin for error very high from the tee. Many of the top modern-day pros playing on the massive expanses of the PGA Tour have made the tee shot their weapon, with 300+ yard drives now a norm. They don’t get the same opportunity here; accuracy is rewarded over power and distance, one has to minimise mistakes instead of maximising scoring opportunities.
“You have to keep hitting the fairways, otherwise your ball will be too hard to control,” Shane Lowry, Fleetwood’s Ryder Cup teammate and member of his three-ball on Friday, would say. “Need that level of consistency.”
And that would be Fleetwood’s roadmap. His 18 holes without a bogey, a testament to consistency and patience. Doggedness as much as talent was on display.
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“It’s a test of patience when you’re not quite on it because like it’s one of those courses, you get a few of them where you feel — if you hit it good off the tee you’re going to have some short irons and wedges and feel like you’ve always got a chance to get it wrong. It’s such a waiting game. You’ve got to be very patient. It’s been a great test,” the 34-year-old from Merseyside said after taking the clubhouse lead.
Among the chasing contingent, Irishman Lowry, who led the leaderboard on Thursday, shot a three-under 69 to stay 11 under and share the lead with American Brian Harmon, whose seven-under 65 put him in good standing on Friday. Only five Indians made the cut on Friday, among whom India No.1 Shubhankar Sharma was the leader; his six-under 66 took him surging up the leaderboard to tied 32nd.
