Tommy Fleetwood’s quest for a first PGA Tour victory goes on and golf analyst Ryan Lavner has admitted to being a touch baffled by the Englishman.
Fleetwood once again threw it away as Justin Rose held off J.J. Spaun to win out at TPC Southwind.
Despite Fleetwood’s performance sealing his Ryder Cup spot, question marks remain over his ability to get a win on the PGA Tour.
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A repeat of what happened at The Travelers has left some questioning if he’ll ever do the business.
And now, speaking on the Golf Channel podcast, analyst Ryan Lavner has used the example of Cam Young to say why he’s been left confused by Fleetwood.
Tommy Fleetwood told his situation on the PGA Tour is ‘confusing’
While Tommy Fleetwood has come in for plenty of praise not only for his performance but how he handled himself in defeat, it doesn’t hide the fact it’s another golden chance missed.
Sure, he may get there eventually but there comes a time when you have to deliver.
One of the players to finally deliver at the Wyndham Championship was Cam Young. He was in a similar scenario to Fleetwood, having never won in over 90 attempts.
And now, Ryan Lavner has suggested that when it comes to final rounds, Fleetwood has himself to blame.
“Isn’t that confusing because last week with Cameron Young breaking through for the first time at the Wyndham Championship, he had seven runner-up finishes, that was the most on the PGA Tour [without a win] since they begun keeping those stats in 1983,” Lavner explained.
“But Cam Young had played well in those final round performances and just gotten beat. His final round scoring average was 67.5. The dude was lighting it up and it just wasn’t his time.
“Tommy Fleetwood’s though is different. His final round performance, he has never gone out and had one really stolen from him. I think back to the US Open where he shot 63 but Brooks Koepka wasn’t going to surrender that one, not at that time. That was the closest in my opinion that Tommy Fleetwood has gotten but he didn’t play particularly well in Canada when Nick Taylor dropped that bomb on him in the playoff, certainly what happened at the Travelers Championship just a couple of months ago was not a great finish and this I don’t think was anything he would be particularly proud about either, the way that he played.
It was very so, so for the first 11 holes. He was leading the field in greens in regulation and driving accuracy over the first three days and all of a sudden he was missing left with that mini driver that he had wielded so successfully. He was still very much in the mix and then he got hot in the middle of the round and birdies 12 and 13, makes a great two putt par of 14 and birdies 15. All of a sudden it is his golf tournament and he has a lot of confidence and then I still don’t quite know – and we are recording this a couple of hours after the final round – what went wrong.”
Going further into why he finds Fleetwood’s Sunday efforts a bit bizarre, Lavner explained how the Englishman effectively fluffed his lines when it mattered.
“He is in the driver’s seat in the middle of the 16th fairway, a very easy par five. The easiest hole on the golf course and he hits what appears to be a decent approach shot into the par five but just skitters long. What happened with third shot? And not leaving himself a realistic shot to make birdie to me was the biggest error. Instead he bones it over the green on the other side and actually does well to escape with a par.
“On 17 he is in the fairway and I think he said he had mud on his ball for his approach shot, but was another very poor pitch shot and all of a sudden he hits the worst putt of his entire week. He was up and out of it from eight feet almost immediately.
“I commend him for talking but this one really has to hurt. I think this one he is going to be searching for what did I do wrong or what could I have done better to correct for next time because it doesn’t seem immediately clear to me. He is standing in the middle of 16th fairway with the tournament in his grasp and then all of a sudden it’s gone.”
How Tommy Fleetwood reacted to his near miss at the FedEx St Jude
Tommy Fleetwood remains a class act and he spoke graciously to the media at TPC Southwind, despite obviously being upset.
It was another near-miss, and one which will sting just as much – if not more – than his loss to Keegan Bradley at The Travelers.
Still, Fleetwood found time to discuss his latest loss and admitted he’ll just need to keep going.
“I’m obviously going to be disappointed. I think — I said last time, there’s a lot of positives to take, as much as I don’t really — I won’t feel like that right now. I’m just going to look at what I feel like I could have done and how close it was,” Fleetwood commented.
“You know, we move on. There’s another week that’s next and I’ve just got to reflect on today and obviously keep pushing forward and try and put myself in that position again.
“You just have to keep — all these experiences and these close calls, like I say, there’s no point in making or allowing them to have a negative effect on what happens next. What would be the point?
“It was a great week. I did a ton of good stuff, and as disappointed as I am, I have to try to find the strength to make it all a positive experience and hopefully next time go again, put myself in that position again and we just go again.“
With such a mindset, it does feel like a matter of time before he gets over the line.
If he doesn’t, then it will go down as one of the great shames in PGA Tour history.
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