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Oct 15th, 2017
Tommy Fleetwood extends massive Race To Dubai lead
Words: Tim Southwell Styling: GolfPunk
He is, as Iggy Pop once famously said, worth a million in prizes. There's just no stopping Tommy Fleetwood. So dominant has he been over the season that he could afford to miss a couple of events in order to attend the birth of his first child a couple of weeks ago.
With extra points on offer at Monza in the fifth of the eight Rolex Series events this season, TF looked like he was going to miss the cut after a first round 71, but a majestic 66 in the second round got him into the weekend and a chance to face down partners – and main threats for the European No 1 spot – Sergio Garcia and Jon Rahm.
Tommy gatecrashes Sergio & Rahm's Sky interview – and then rubbed it in on the golf course...
Fleetwood duly obliged as a third round 63 was followed by a final round 67, a tie for 6th place and an extra 166,982 race To Dubai points. Rahm finished tied 16th (78,000 points) and Sergio tied 30th (51,999 points)
But the Englishman fought back with rounds of 66 and 63, and a flawless final-round 67 earned him a tie for sixth place on 17 under par - two clear of Rahm and five strokes ahead of Garcia.
Watch TF bring Carnoustie to its knees...
Fleetwood now has a commanding lead with just five events remaining this season, although the Spanish duo will have high hopes of reducing the deficit on home soil at next week's Andalucia Valderrama Masters, in which Garcia is tournament host.
"I played well enough to win for three days, but that first day I didn't play well enough to make the cut," said Fleetwood, who is taking next week off. "Golf is a four-day tournament and I still felt like I could have a chance, even with a level par, and it shows I could have. A couple more putts, a couple more chances taken, and you never know.
He almost won the US Open, you know...
"But the last three rounds were really good, solid golf. I only made one bogey in three rounds. I've got a week off next week but it's been nice these two weeks after having so much time off, and to come back and play good golf has been nice."
Here's the table. 5 events to go...
|
Tommy Fleetwood |
Eng |
3,974,247.45 points |
|
Sergio Garcia |
Esp |
2,851,251.61 |
|
Jon Rahm |
Esp |
2,840,693.50 |
|
Ross Fisher |
Eng |
2,452,144.17 |
|
Tyrrell Hatton |
Eng |
2,443,181.59 |
|
Rafa Cabrera Bello |
Esp |
2,124,686.23 |
|
Alex Noren |
Swe |
2,026,440.43 |
|
Francesco Molinari |
Ita |
1,836,902.96 |
|
Rory McIlroy |
NIrl |
1,832,091.03 |
|
Justin Rose |
Eng |
1,593,949.77 |
