Tommy Fleetwood Tops Rain-Delayed Players

Weather kept half the field from starting the first round at The Players.  Tommy Fleetwood, though, managed to put up a 6-under par round of 66 to hold the lead while rest of the golfers tried to get in as many holes as possible before dark.

“I’m chuffed to be in on that score,” he said to the media afterward. “I felt like I drove the ball well aside from a couple, and I felt like I chipped and putted great. For sure, like that was the most I could have got out of the round.”

He was particularly pleased since he has not played well the last two years. In fact, he just reached the top 50 in the world in time to be eligible for the tournament.

When asked what had been the issue, he was quick to answer.

“I think there’s been certain things in my swing, if you like, that I haven’t quite understood, and I would say feelings and shots that I have seen haven’t quite matched up with what I’ve always felt,” Fleetwood explained.

“It was like break some golf clubs or shave my beard, then I went for the beard.” — Tommy Fleetwood

Playing both the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour has also taken a toll. Doing that means that he has to have good results when he shows up to play on either tour. If he doesn’t get them, it certainly affects his rankings.

The only change Tommy Fleetwood has made that’s visible to most is shaving off his beard.

“I was in a really bad mood. It was like break some golf clubs or shave my beard, then I went for the beard,” he admitted.

However, his wife likes it, so there’s a good chance it will make another appearance soon.  On the flip side, several players told him he looked younger without it.

He was playing in Abu Dhabi during his 31st birthday this year in a grouping with Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa.

“Both of them were looking at me like, we had to Google your age,” he said. They told him they thought he was 37 or 38. “That’s a pretty harsh comment, to be fair. When I shaved it off, I think it took about 15 years off me. Everyone kind of noticed that I look a lot younger without the beard.”

So, will his vanity or his wife win the beard contest? That remains to be seen.

Fleetwood’s fairways hit in round one were 64 percent and greens in regulation, 72 percent.  Those are excellent numbers.   It just remains to be seen if he can continue that kind of form.

One thing in his favor is that he loves the golf course.

“If you play well, you get rewarded, and if you play poorly, you’re going to struggle to make a score. I think it’s major-like in that sense,” he added.

However, he couldn’t predict what would happen over the next 18 holes.  Last week, he said he played horrible golf and made the cut by a shot because he hit the pin and holed out on his 17th hole.   The week before he was encouraged by his game, and yet he missed the cut by one shot.

“It’s just a strange game that you never seem to be able to understand or that makes no sense,” he concluded.

Play was suspended shortly after 6:30 PM Thursday and will begin at 7:15 AM Friday morning, Eastern time.