Tommy Fleetwood got his 2026 PGA Tour season underway with a round of five-under-par 67 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Thursday.
Fleetwood has already played two events on the DP World Tour in 2026 but he hadn’t ventured over to America to play on the PGA Tour until this week.
The 34-year-old Englishman enjoyed a dream season on the PGA Tour in 2025, after he managed to finally get over the line and secure his first win.
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Fleetwood proved that he wasn’t ‘too nice to win’ on the PGA Tour with his triumph at the Tour Championship in August.
And it’s fair to say that he has now firmly established himself as one of the best golfers on the planet.
At the start of this year, Fleetwood insisted that he wanted to close the gap on Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy at the top of the world rankings.
A win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this week would be the ideal start on his quest to do just that.
Tommy Fleetwood reacts after first PGA Tour round of the season at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Fleetwood is one of the most likeable characters on the PGA Tour.
He has an enormous fanbase in the United States, and his loyal supporters were delighted to see him back in action at Pebble Beach on Thursday.
After Fleetwood posted his round of 67 at Spyglass Hill, which featured seven birdies and two bogeys, he responded when asked to give his verdict on how he actually played.
“Yeah, I felt like I hit a lot of good shots. I sort of, I chipped and holed out well today. Like I scored pretty solid.
“There were still a few shots, like I had one really poor iron shot, I had one really poor drive and then one really poor fairway shot, but in general it was solid.
“I think yeah, I know the conditions were nice, but I still think it’s a really good score.“
He’s right; 67 was a really good score.
However, if the weather remains the same on Friday, he will probably need to shoot lower than that in his second round if he is to be in contention heading into the weekend.
Fleetwood predicts what score would lead at Pebble Beach in bad conditions
Fleetwood was asked about the change in conditions from Wednesday’s practice round at Pebble Beach to the opening round of the tournament on Thursday.
He said: “I can’t imagine. I went out really early morning.
What specific part Tommy Fleetwood’s game do you think he must improve if he is to ever win a major?
“I just find it hard to see somebody breaking par yesterday like in the conditions that I played in in the morning in the practice round. There’s always some good rounds, but yeah, it would have been very different.
“I mean, I haven’t seen the scoring yet today, but by the sounds of it, it’s very, very good.
“I played here, I played earlier on Tuesday here and it was really firm so I think the rain has softened it up a lot.
“But even with that, you’ve got to control your spin very well. But also I guess when the course gets softer, even when you almost about hit it in the rough sometimes and it takes the spin off the ball, so I think then that kind of accumulates because you don’t have to drive it amazing to then be in a great position to score and then you can hit a nice shot and then you’re going to be closer and all that kind of stuff.
“I guess that can accumulate. I don’t know what the scoring at Pebble Beach is like. Yeah, the weather’s been really nice, and the players are just very, very, very good at golf, so lends itself to good scoring.“
Fleetwood clearly isn’t razor sharp like he was during the final few months of the 2025 PGA Tour season.
However, his opening round at Spyglass Hill in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am would have given him real encouragement that he’s very close to returning to his best.
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