There’s a reason Tommy Fleetwood won the 2017 Race To Dubai.
There’s a reason he’s the best player on the European Tour, day-in and day-out.
Fact is, Tommy Fleetwood’s got a lot of game.
The scruffy young Englishman put on a pure display of near-perfect golf in Abu Dhabi playing in the company of the world’s No. 1 Dustin Johnson and the man who used to be No. 1 — Rory McIlroy.
Fleetwood was jazzed about his pairing with those two.
“I think I’m going to struggle to find a better three ball,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how long I play for. That might be the best one I get.”
Still, it was D.J. and Rory getting the bulk of the pre-tournament attention despite the fact that Fleetwood’s the defender, winning last year by a shot over D.J.
Day One began with your perfect desert cool air. Tommy and the guys started off No. 10 at the lush Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
Fleetwood got down to business quickly with birdie at the 10th, a par five. He’d make the turn at three-under, jumping in front of his playing partners.
Rory’s start wasn’t anything to get excited about — nine straight pars. D.J. got it to a couple under at the turn.
Fleetwood was a machine, he hit every green and by day’s end, produced a textbook bogey-free 66 that put him atop the field at six-under.
It took 12 holes for Rory to finally make a birdie but the good news for Rors is that he avoided the bogey-man all day and finished three-under — 69.
D.J. wasn’t as fortunate. He was derailed by three front-nine bogeys and could do no better than even-par 72 for his day’s work. Johnson and McIlroy were major underachievers on the par fives, they combined for just two birdies out of eight par five opportunities combined, pretty sad considering their enormous length off the tee.
As for Fleetwood, he’s not as long but long enough to go four-for-four and the par fives.
A good day for Tommy — you bet it was:
“It was very stress free. I played really well from start to finish. It felt like I did what you need to do well around this course which is drive it well, hit your irons but you can’t really be too greedy all the time.”
So said the man who shot 17-under to win last year.
As for Rory, he was okay with his start:
“With how I played I could have shot a better score but after reeling off 11 pars in a row, I’m proud of myself to hang in there and make those three birdies in the last seven holes and get in bogey-free. There were no mistakes, I played very solidly, very smart. It was a good round of golf. It could have been better but I’ll take it.”
As for D.J., his day simply reinforced that life on tour is a day-to-day, week-to-week proposition.
He even let a 13-year-old get the best of him on the 177-yard par three 15th hole.
Young Oscar Murphy jumped in and played the hole with the feature threesome as part of the tournament’s Beat The Pro Challenge during the first round. Murphy, from Northern Ireland who will quickly point out that McIlroy is his golf idol, hit a three-wood to the back-right pin placement and it stopped within 25 feet, closer than Johnson and Fleetwood.
D.J.’s got a lot of work in front of him if he wants to get near the 16-under par he shot last year.
As for Fleetwood, he looks determined to repeat.
After all, the kid’s got a lot of game.
Day Two Update: The feature threesome put on an amazing display of golf on Friday. Dustin Johnson got it going and shot an eight-under par 64 that tied for the week’s lowest round. Rory McIlroy sank a 20-footer for eagle at the 18th to shoot 66 while Tommy Fleetwood celebrated his 27th birthday with a four-under par 68. The threesome combined for just one bogey and that came at the 16th when Fleetwood hit a poor drive, left his second in a greenside bunker and didn’t get up-and-down. He bounced back with a birdie-birdie finish. The Englishman is 10-under, just two back of 36-hole leader Thomas Pieters (67-65). Rory’s finishing eagle got him to nine-under while D.J. sits at eight-under — all are in serious contention heading into the weekend. Justin Rose and Matt Kuchar both had to birdie the final hole (18th) to make the cut at two-under and both did just that.
