Abu Dhabi: Englishman Tommy Fleetwood won his first European Tour title way back in 2013 and had to wait for three years before getting his hands to his second one on Sunday, clinching the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship by one shot in a crunch contest.
The success hasn’t come that easy for the 26-year-old from Southport. His desire for more glory made him take wrong decisions and he ended up tampering with his style of play, revealed Fleetwood immediately after lifting the glittering Falcon Trophy at the capital course.
“I had a really rough time from July 2015 to July 2016 where I played and I was really struggling with my game. I tried changing my swing because I thought it would make me better. I thought it would make me a world-class golfer,” said Fleetwood, who was richer by $450,000.
“I was a bit naïve and I was a bit silly and just got going the wrong way, and that was all. I couldn’t do the things that I was trying to do,” added Fleetwood, who went back to his childhood coach Alan Thompson for help.
“The strength of my game was my driving, but I was struggling off the tee. I couldn’t get it off the tee and I just had way too many bad shots. It was killing my golf game off, really. When your strengths have gone, that’s when it becomes most hardest,” recalled Fleetwood adding that the stint did wonders to his game and he got his confidence back.
“Thompson coached me since I was 13 and he coached me through the England set-up, and when I first turned pro, he was coaching for a couple of years; and we had a bit of a time-out and he’s come back again.
“My swing is not where we want it yet, but it’s very close, and we’ve been able to build a swing that we’ve always wanted to do but never actually had the chance. It’s been cool, really,” said Fleetwood, who also attributed his success to his caddie Ian Finnis.
“Ian’s been one of my best mates for 15 years. But he caddied for me when I was an amateur for a bit and he caddied for me when I first got on Tour. We had always said when the time would come up again, when the opportunity arose, we would give it a go,” said Fleetwood, adding that many thought that the reunion would be of very little help.
“To be fair, there’s not a lot of people that thought it would work. We stuck at it and we knew it would come good. He’s been a massively positive influence, really. I can’t give him enough credit for how good he’s been for me,” said Fleetwood, who revealed that he kept plugging on and didn’t think much about the leaderboard for most part of his final round.
“The 10th hole was a big turning point, really. You can quite easily chip that to six-foot and miss and make five. Chipped it in and made three and birdied the next. Those two holes were the big difference.”
