Tommy Fleetwood gets irritated.
Right?
“I think in general there are probably plenty of things that annoy me,” he said, “but I’m actually pretty relaxed off the golf course.
“I mean, what do I have to complain or be annoyed about?”
The question can be considered philosophical. And the question is rhetorical, because it’s good to be Tommy Fleetwood these days. From late August onwards, men’s pro golf felt like it was Fleetwood – and everyone else. He won the PGA Tour Tour Championship. His European side won the Ryder Cup. In October he won the DP World India Championship on the DP World Tour. This week at Pebble Beach, in his 2026 PGA Tour debut, Fleetwood is ranked fourth in the world, and everyone is whispering his name in big conversations.
But pre-end of August? There is always a beginning with these types of lists. And what happened before the Tour Championship breakthrough was a question that had lingered for a while: Would he ever win on the PGA Tour? One hundred and sixty-three begins. One hundred and sixty-three non-firsts. Some were painful, like the one at last June’s Travelers Championship, where he was in the lead after 71 holes with a stroke; and the one at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in early August, where he was in the lead going into the final round. Maybe one day he would win. But that was not a given. His winless streak had surpassed the number of games played in a Major League Baseball season.
But after each event he answered everyone’s questions, and that gave everyone a sense of who this 35-year-old Englishman is: a nice guy. One for which there are no excuses. One with no reason to be annoyed. It was all undoubtedly endearing. Le Bron James even cheered for a Fleetwood W. But you know the saying about nice guys finishing last and all that, and maybe Tommy Lad became a bit of a – actually we’ll let Rory McIlroy continue that thought on the way to victory.
“I would never say Tommy questioned how much he wanted it,” McIlroy said last November. “But he’s always been so nice. So nice. And then I think, is he too nice? Because you need that little bit of edge or jab in you – whatever you want to call it. I know I have it, and I feel like that’s what you need to win. I think it’s harder for Tommy to feel that because of how empathetic he is.”
“But this year I feel like he’s developed that little bit of an edge.”
Maybe McIlroy is right. Maybe being mean is the necessary remedy. And that cutthroat results in no missed cuts. And that not taking prisoners leads to not making bogeymen.
On the other hand, there may be room to play like a child.
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Fleetwood said Wednesday afternoon. He was asked whether, after sixteen years as a professional, it started to look more like work. Or no game. And Fleetwood said that wasn’t the case, and that he hoped it never would be. “Yes, I have my days where I feel like it’s quite rubbish, that I’m not playing well or it’s rubbish again and I’m having a bad day or whatever it is,” he said. “I’m still, I think – yes, it’s important to remember how much you wanted this life and how much you really love it.”
And perhaps there is room for welcoming questions that are usually not welcome.
Fleetwood said the same on Wednesday. He was asked if his chance of winning a major was now – and he said he was grateful to be asked. “I always try to find the positives of whether this is, as you say, my chance to win a major,” Fleetwood said. “Try to see the positive side of that. For example, I would rather you ask me that question than not mention it at all, because then I wouldn’t do very well.”
None of this makes Fleetwood much like McIlroy’s P-word, does it?
He could have done it. He could have gotten nervous. He could have shaken off his almost shoulder-length hair.
It would have just been annoying.
“I think it’s important to be yourself,” Fleetwood said. “I think any time you try to be something you’re not, it’s just as hard. So again, I’m just trying to be myself.
“If that’s what I am, if I’m a really nice person, then that’s great, like I’m happy with that.”
Sounds pretty nice, right?
McIlroy be damned.
“I don’t know what that stigma is about, like too nice to win or nice guys — you know, nice guys can win, of course,” Fleetwood said. “I think I’ve always prided myself on being a good person, a nice guy, but I also love playing golf and competing.
“For everything I hadn’t done before, hadn’t won tournaments or hadn’t gone my way, I felt like I just continued to learn and grow as a competitor.
“But no, I definitely looked at things and tried to analyze what I did right and what I did wrong. Hopefully Rory still thinks I’m a nice guy.”
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