Tommy Fleetwood ready for ‘absolute dream’ of a home Open at Royal Birkdale
Tommy Fleetwood will tee off at Royal Birkdale this week with the backing of his home crowd and the chance to end a long wait for an English winner of The Open on home soil.
Fleetwood was a wide-eyed seven-year-old watching when the championship last came to Southport in 1998. Nearly three decades later, the 35-year-old goes into The 154th Open as one of the tournament’s leading contenders.
Championship play begins on Thursday, July 16, and runs until Sunday, July 19. The wider Open programme at Royal Birkdale runs from July 12 to 19.
The last English player to win The Open in England was Tony Jacklin at Royal Lytham in 1969. That 57-year wait has become part of the local build-up, alongside England’s only football World Cup victory in 1966.
Many around the fairways are daring to dream that both hoodoos could be lifted by Sunday evening. If Fleetwood were to start that double by lifting the Claret Jug, the celebrations on Merseyside would be enormous.
Support for the Southport golfer is already visible around the area. A giant mural of Fleetwood has been unveiled at Southport & Birkdale Sports Club, while a 1,000m portrait has been created for shoppers at Liverpool ONE. A crocheted Fleetwood also sits on top of a postbox outside nearby Hillside railway station.
Fleetwood knows Royal Birkdale better than most of the field. Stories of him slipping through the bushes to play the course as a youngster may have been exaggerated, although he offered his own version at Monday’s press conference.
“I did it once or twice”
His only previous Open appearance at Birkdale came in 2017. The pressure told in his opening round, when he carded a six-over-par 76, but he recovered with “one of the best rounds I’ve ever played” to make the cut. He then shot a brilliant 66 on Saturday.
Fleetwood also finished inside the top 10 at Royal Liverpool in 2023. Those experiences are part of the reason he is approaching this week with confidence rather than fear.
“I have all those things to draw on and I have all those things to aim for,” he said. “It is an absolute dream to play here in my hometown in front of people that are all here to support me. There are only positives.
“What you have to deal with is how much you want it and your own expectations, but at the same time, I'm no different to any other person in terms of every single person that is playing in The Open dreams of winning in The Open and wants to win it.
“There's really nothing different to anybody else in that sense. I am the lucky one that gets to have home support and use that as like really positive fuel.”
Fleetwood cut a relaxed figure in front of the media and said he wants to keep smiling during the week. That could prove difficult when he faces Birkdale’s tougher holes and whatever weather arrives from the Irish Sea.
His focus, however, is on enjoying the opportunity rather than allowing the occasion to become a burden.
“If I just go back to the original me being a seven-year-old kid, the thought of playing in an Open at Birkdale was unbelievably special,” he said. “If you're not going to enjoy it, you've kind of let yourself down in that sense.
“My son, Frankie, is eight, so my sort of age when The Open came here in 1998. That's definitely where my dreams of making it as a golfer sort of started.
“He is at a lovely age where he gets to experience that and have his dad playing.”
Fleetwood broke through for his first PGA Tour victory at the 2025 Tour Championship, winning the FedExCup in the process. Opening his major account at Birkdale would carry an even greater significance.
He begins the championship ranked ninth in the world and will play alongside Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm during the first two rounds.
“I don't think I want to look towards the future and think I have to win a major to feel fulfilled,” added the world number nine. “Like everyone else out here, we spend our lives giving it everything, and it might happen for me, it might not.
“I don't want to think about it as if it doesn't happen, all of those hours I spent chasing my dreams, what was it for, that kind of thing.
“Whatever happens in my career, I'll be able to look back and say that I gave it everything and I had an amazing time doing it.
“I would definitely much prefer to have a major or two or three on my resume by the time my career is over.
“Dreams do come true, we watch it all the time, but you'll never find out if yours will unless you chase it. Mine might come true; it might not. I've done a lot in my career so far – but there is still plenty more to go.”
For Fleetwood, that next challenge starts in his own backyard on Thursday morning.
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