Tommy Fleetwood is in contention to win a PGA Tour event yet again, this time at the BMW Championship after his fine opening round of 65 at Caves Valley on Thursday.
Fleetwood suffered heartbreak for the second time in two months on the PGA Tour at the FedEx St. Jude Championship last week, after he was overtaken on the final day by Justin Rose and J.J. Spaun, before his fellow Englishman went on to defeat the American in a playoff.
However, the 34-year-old is attempting to bounce back quickly with a win at the BMW Championship this week.
That said, his fellow European Ryder Cup team member Robert McIntyre could well cause him a big problem in that quest.
MacIntyre carded a sublime 62 on day one of the BMW Championship after the near two-hour rain delay at Caves Valley.
The Scot’s round of eight-under par was particularly impressive, after Scottie Scheffler highlighted just how difficult Caves Valley was playing.
Tommy Fleetwood makes comment on Robert MacIntyre at the BMW Championship
Anything under par was a decent score at Caves Valley on day one.
The seven-time DP World Tour winner spoke to reporters after his own extremely impressive round of 65 in Baltimore on Thursday.
Conversation quickly switched to MacIntyre’s round of 62, and Fleetwood was asked to give his opinion on that score.
He said: I would love to see the highlights of his round, really, because — for sure when we came back out, the course was a lot softer, so we did have a chance of shooting a score. But did he finish with quite a few birdies maybe?“
After being told MacIntyre made six birdies in a row to shoot 29 on the back nine, Fleetwood said: “That helps.
“He was only 2-under before that. He wasn’t doing that great. Yeah, that’s an amazing round of golf, and I think sometimes those just — how tough this course is, I don’t care when we came out, whether it’s soft, whether the conditions have eased up or whatever. I think sometimes you see rounds where it really does show how good PGA players are sometimes.
“For me, if you’d have played the course or walked the course this morning and then said somebody is going to shoot 62, ridiculous really. It just shows how good so many of these players are, and great stuff from Bob.“
Fleetwood was then asked if he is surprised that there were only two bogey free rounds on Thursday – compiled by himself and Hideki Matsuyama.
“I’m surprised there was any bogey-free rounds, including myself. I’m surprised at myself. So yeah.
“Again, to go bogey-free around there is really, really good. I couldn’t ask for much more in terms of — I think I made like two or three really good par saves, but apart from that, I did a lot of things well.
“I got away with it off the tee, as well, a lot. Coming out, the rain had made the bunkers so smooth, and I was driving it not great, kept hitting it in the bunker, but the bunker was arguably better than the fairways at times. There was no mud on my ball; it sat perfect. So I did get a bit lucky at times with that. But you make the most of that.
“I’m very surprised at that.“
Tommy Fleetwood vs Robert MacIntyre: BMW Championship day one stats
Fleetwood and MacIntyre are second and first on the leaderboard after the first round of the BMW Championship.
Here is how their opening round numbers compare:
| Stats | Fleetwood’s rank | MacIntyre’s rank |
| Off the tee | 39th | 38th |
| Approach | 4th | 2nd |
| Around the green | 1st | 21st |
| Putting | 7th | 1st |
| Total | 2nd | 1st |
Fleetwood didn’t drive the ball anywhere near as well as he did in Memphis last week.
However, he still shot five-under par on Thursday, so if he manages to get his big stick working throughout the rest of the week, he could finally end his wait for a PGA Tour win.
However, Fleetwood will have to usurp MacIntyre on the BMW Championship leaderboard in order to do that and he will undoubtedly have a close eye on a certain Scottie Scheffler in his rearview mirror.
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