AUGUSTA, Ga. — Tommy Fleetwood recently played a round of golf at Augusta National in which he said, “I didn’t care if I shot 150.”
Now that is not something you often hear from a professional golfer.
Or ever.
But the Englishman truly did not care. What he cared most about was seeing his stepsons, 19-year-old Oscar and 17-year-old Mo, playing the iconic course for the first time.
“I’m teeing it up at Augusta with no pressure or anything,” Fleetwood said April 7, two days before the start of the Masters. “I was just happy to be playing. I could have shot 150 and not really cared.
“It was just a joy to be out there, watching them. They’re really nervous about playing. It’s funny watching that experience. You see people playing it for the first time, and then maybe you see things that you’ve learned along the way, like watch how they would play the golf, they would hit some good shots that end up in tricky spots.”
Fleetwood, 35, certainly will feel differently when he tees it up for the 10th time in the Masters. His best finish is a tie for third in 2024. But he has his best chance to win his first major championship after a sizzling start to the season in which he’s finished in the top 10 in four of five events he has played, and risen to No. 4 in the world.
That start also includes winning the SoFi Cup. Fleetwood is part of the Los Angeles Golf Club that won the TGL championship.
“There’s no doubt for everybody that plays the game, winning a Masters, whether it be walking up the 18th, holing a putt on the 18th green, the moment you have the jacket put upon you … you can rattle them off,” Fleetwood said. “I think it’s on such a mantelpiece in people’s career and how they view it, and it’s so easy to create like those moments in your mind because we watch it every year.”
But that desire, obsession — however you frame it — cannot get in the way of the moment.
“You always know that how much you want it is there in the background,” he said. “So I try to let that be a thing and then just focus on what I’m doing at the time.”
Tommy Fleetwood’s first Masters memory: Tiger Woods winning in 1997
Fleetwood’s Masters memory dates to 1997, three months after his sixth birthday. The year Tiger Woods won his first Masters, and first major. When Fleetwood returned from school, his dad said: “This Tiger Woods guy is going to be unbelievable.”
“I do literally remember that moment,” he said.
But his first indelible moment came in 2014, when he was 23 years old. Fleetwood bought a ticket and was a spectator for the Masters won by Bubba Watson. He thought this is what he wants to do, and where he wants to be, when he gets older.
“I know a lot of people would say the first time they want to come to Augusta is when they would be playing in the Masters,” Fleetwood said. “I was a young player dreaming of playing in the Masters, and I felt like it would be part motivation for me and part like I would get to see it before I (played in the tournament).”
Fleetwood found himself in the field just three years later. He missed the cut but has played every weekend at Augusta since.
Four times he has closed in the top 20. He tied with Max Homa and Collin Morikawa for third two years ago, but he did not experience that thrill of playing the back nine with the feeling you had a real chance to win.
Fleetwood wants to play Masters final round with chance to win
That, he hopes, comes this year.
“I was very much on the outskirts,” he said about 2024. “Scottie was a long way in front. I was never really in contention. I was having a great week, and I wanted to finish as strong as I could. But I’ve never had that joy yet of playing on the back nine with a chance to win the Masters.
“I would love to be there late on Sunday with a chance. Those juices flowing on the back nine of Augusta.”
As for that round at Augusta with the boys, Fleetwood said they played “OK.” And one thing he is sure about, neither Oscar or Mo have beat him in a round of golf.
One of them, though, may not agree.
“Mo claims he’s beat me, but like it’s a very debatable one,” Fleetwood said. “I don’t think he can claim it, but he does.”
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tommy Fleetwood didn’t care if he shot 150 at Augusta before Masters
Reporting by Tom D’Angelo, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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