PGA Tour ace Tommy Fleetwood stands on the cusp of breaking a career-long duck on Sunday, with a title finally in sight at the Travelers Championship.
Tommy Fleetwood could break one of the most agonising droughts in golf on Sunday (Image: Getty)
More than a decade after making his PGA Tour debut, Tommy Fleetwood stands on the verge of finally breaking his win drought on Sunday. The Englishman leads the competition by three strokes heading into the final round of the Travelers Championship, where he has a chance at landing a mega £2.7million payday.
That would be just about the ideal way to shed his tag as the most successful player on the PGA Tour to have never actually won an event. And all he needs is one more round of 18 holes to go in his favour at TPC River Highlands. Earlier this year, golf fan-favourite Fleetwood became the first player in history to surpass £18.5m in PGA Tour winnings without winning a single event on the series. Since March, his total PGA Tour earnings have ballooned to just short of £22m.
That’s no bad consolation prize despite never topping a leaderboard on a Sunday night. But Fleetwood looks primed to get that substantial monkey off his back this weekend.
He shot a seven-under-par 63 on Saturday to move clear of his competition in Cromwell, Connecticut. Russell Henley and Keegan Bradley each sit three strokes behind on 13-under, while Jason Day is following close behind on 11-under.
Needless to say Sunday’s outing will put Fleetwood’s nerves to the test as he aches to finally get a landmark win across the line. He has won seven times on the European Tour and has two Ryder Cup victories to his name but has never managed the same feat under the PGA Tour banner.
To his credit, the Southport-born star does a good job of not putting too much pressure on himself despite his duck. And Fleetwood does a fine job of focusing on the positives rather than paying attention to the inevitable downsides of his drought.
Speaking after his third-round display, Fleetwood said: “I’m on top of a lot of stat lines for people that haven’t won on the PGA Tour, so to always to be a No.1 at something is always nice.
“Yeah, of course I would love to win on the PGA Tour. It’s like an element of your career that everybody wants and I of course want it. This year, especially, this is like my first real chance, so I’m really excited about that and looking forward to it.
“It’s easy to put pressure on yourself and, the longer things go on, the more people talk about it, of course they do. But there’s also things that I’m very proud about as well, like my consistency, where I stand FedExCups and World Rankings and things like that. So there’s a lot to be happy about.”
