Tommy Fleetwood hit the front on day two of the Abu Dhabi Championship after a sparkling round of six-under par 66.
Fleetwood is leading the Abu Dhabi Championship heading into the weekend, alongside his fellow Englishman Aaron Rai on 14-under par.
What a sensational year 2025 has been for the 34-year-old. He won the first PGA Tour event of his career at the Tour Championship in August and was part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team just one month later.
He also won in India on the DP World Tour last month and it looks like he’s set to finish in fine style in Abu Dhabi this week and Dubai next week.
Fleetwood was paired with Shane Lowry in Abu Dhabi during the first two rounds, and he was clearly very relaxed out on the golf course at Yas Links.
Earlier this week, Fleetwood said his main target now is to win a major and given the quality of his golf right now, it surely won’t be too long before he breaks his duck in the biggest tournaments of them all.
Tommy Fleetwood reacts after taking the lead in Abu Dhabi
The Englishman will obviously be delighted with the fact that he’s tied for the lead heading into the weekend and he undoubtedly would have taken that if it was offered to him before the tournament began.
Fleetwood was asked to sum up his second round 66 in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
He said: “Really good day. I got off to like the perfect start. Birdie, birdie, birdie. That was good, especially when you’ve had a good round the day before. They always say it’s hard to follow up a good round with another good one, or a low one with another one.
“Starting good was really important. I just did a really good job — I hit a lot of good shots but a few times today where I drove it into the rough and we read the lies really well. I felt like we did a great job of controlling the ball out of the rough, and that was really pleasing. I feel like I putted solid again. 6-under was a very good score.“
He was then asked if he feels like he’s on autopilot right now.
Fleetwood responded by saying: “Not at all. I still think around this golf course, there’s plenty of shots that are very testing. I think scores have been very low, as well, and you know that you’ve got — if you’re going to be up there on Sunday you’re going to have to be pretty relentless and keep hitting good shots and keep scoring.
“I feel, obviously, good about my game and I’m doing so many things well. But I’m also very aware of what the game can do to you as well. I’ll just stay very focused on each day. I’m having a lot of good rounds but I’m not stupid, and it’s bitten me enough times. I’ll enjoy these good ones but stay focused and continue to do the right things and keep it going as long as possible.“
Fleetwood is the consummate professional, and he will undoubtedly be 100% focused during the next two rounds as he looks to win for the third time in 2025.
Tommy Fleetwood points out big change in his game
Fleetwood has clearly made huge strides with his golf game over the past year or so.
And he put his improvement down to learning from the very best golfers in the world.
He said: “I think that’s where I want to be, as well. My first — in my first three or four years on tour or when I got to these events, I always found myself being pretty tired at the end of the season and I got to these events — you can feel disappointed because you don’t play how you want to play and you’re a little bit tired.
“I noticed what the best players were doing, and they were competing till the very end of the year. They were very — “fresh” might be an overstatement but they were still very motivated. They were doing all the right things. I sort of looked at them and I thought, that’s what I want to be doing and those are the players that I want to be like.
“Since then, I’ve always tried to get to the end of the year and feel like I’m doing a lot of good things. I feel like I’m still really motivated. I really want to play well. I still have things that I want to achieve even with six rounds of golf to go into the season, and yeah, like these events, it’s so nice to get to the end of the year and being playing well.
“I’m two rounds in now this week, and hopefully I can put another good round in tomorrow and compete on Sunday and same goes for next week, as well. Yeah, preparing well, trying to play well, trying to compete all the way up till the very last day of the season, and then we can switch off and take a break after that.“
The way that Fleetwood is going, he may well be Scottie Scheffler’s closest challenger in 2026.
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