Fleetwood answers son’s dreams with win in India

Final round of the DP World India Championship

-22 T Fleetwood (Eng), -20 K Nakajima (Jpn), -18 A Fitzpatrick (Eng), S Lowry (Ire), T Lawrence (SA), -17 V Hovland (Nor), J Luiten (Ned), J Schaper (SA)

Selected others: -16 D Hillier (NZ), -15 B Schmidt (Eng), -14 D Bradbury (Eng), -13 A Sullivan (Eng), B Robinson-Thompson (Eng), -11 R McIlroy (NI)

With a two-shot victory at the DP World India Championship, Tommy Fleetwood won his eighth European tour title by making his son Frankie a reality.

The Ryder Cup winner claimed that his eight-year-old son had never had a chance to run onto the 18th green to congratulate him after rolling in for a seven-under-par final round of 65 to finish on 22 under.

He was unable to watch Fleetwood’s maiden PGA Tour victory in August and was not old enough to watch the DP World Tour’s most recent victory in January 2024.

After welcoming his son on the green, Fleetwood, 34, said, “That was all day today what I had in my mind. Could I put myself in a position where I could actually make that happen”?

“It’s one of those little things,” it says. I wanted to do it all day because it meant a lot to me, and that was really cool.

With two shots clear of Keita Nakajima, Fleetwood was two shots clear of Japan in the final round.

After moving to seven under for his round, New Zealander Daniel Hillier, who is ranked 218th in the world, couldn’t hold onto his lead after a double bogey six on the 14th, which he did not recover from.

Nakajima, however, was forced to accept his third-place finish on the DP World Tour in order to recapture the fireworks from his third-round 65.

However, Englishman Fleetwood, who had a shaky third round on Saturday, had a run of four consecutive birdies all round, starting with the seventh and seventh, followed by some strong birdie putts on the 14th and 17th, to take the final shot with a respectable two-shot lead.

His most recent success included a star turn for Europe’s Ryder Cup victory over the United States in New York, which ensured his qualification for the season-ending tournaments.

added Fleetwood following his most recent success of a remarkable season, which saw him claim eight top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour. “There’s been plenty of times when things haven’t gone my way, but the last two tournaments I have been in contention for haven’t gone in, I have won, so maybe things are starting to level out a little bit,” said he.

Alex Fitzpatrick, a fellow Englishman, birdied the final three rounds to move to 18 under and one-two with Ireland’s Shane Lowry for third place, with his third consecutive round of 67.

Viktor Hovland chipped in for an eagle at the last to move up to 17 under and share fourth place in the week.