Tommy Fleetwood admits his putting needs to improve after Scottish Open
Tommy Fleetwood believes he is almost back to his best, but his putting must improve.
Tommy Fleetwood believes his game is "coming back" but admitted he must improve his putting if he is to get back to the performance levels he knows he is capable of.
It's almost been a year since Fleetwood last lifted a trophy, when he claimed the Nedbank Golf Challenge in November 2019 and following that victory, the Englishman's performance seemed to drop.
Fleetwood admitted he started trying a few things that just didn't seem to work and he went back to an old golf coach to try and regain the form that made him one of the most exciting talents in the world.
Since returning to the sport following some time out due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Fleetwood's results on the PGA Tour haven't been all that impressive, but in his last two starts on the European Tour, the 29-year-old has recorded a T3 finish at the Portugal Masters, before finishing 2nd at last week's Scottish Open.
Fleetwood lost out to Aaron Rai in a play-off at the Renaissance Club on Sunday, after he pulled a three-foot putt for par at the first extra hole.
"Well, I hit a poor putt and that's the end of it, really," said Fleetwood following his play-off defeat. "Aaron played 72 holes very, very good, and it was Aaron's time and Aaron's week. Congratulations to him.
"Obviously I'd have loved it to have been me, but overall, looking back at the week, there's so many putts that probably cost me being further in the tournament but that's golf. There's a lot of assets in the game that you have to do well to win, and putting cost me at the end. But that's life and we'll try again next week.
"I played really, really good, especially the back nine today, I felt really in control of my game, and you know, end of the day, I finished second, nobody beat me over 72 holes and it was Aaron's time and that's how it goes."
Fleetwood putts using a claw grip, something that most golf coaches believe should only be used for a small period of time to get rid of the dreaded putting yips.
Although he holed a few important putts to get himself into a play-off, Fleetwood admits his putting was a concern over the four days.
"At the end of the day, I holed that one in the last to get in the play-off but putting cost me overall throughout week. Yeah, summed it up when I just pulled a straight putt on the last.
"It's disappointing. Of course, you always look at the positives, but I messed up on the first playoff hole and that's that. It's just golf. Still have to work on my putting a bit more and hopefully improve that for the next time I play.
"Clearly my game is coming back. I said that at the start of the week. Everything I've been working on has been really good and felt more like the player that I feel like I should be, really, for a lot of this week, and yeah, tighten things up and hopefully my time's coming."
This week, Fleetwood has a chance to win on home soil as the European Tour heads to Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship, the third Rolex Series event of the year.
With his form clearly improving, it's no surprise to see Fleetwood as the tournament favourite, ever so slightly ahead of Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed, who has made the trip from the US to play in the European Tour's flagship event.
