Tommy Fleetwood and his stepson Oscar Craig.
Getty Photographs
Tommy Fleetwood has been busy.
He entered this week’s Genesis Scottish Open on a powerful run of type; he’s completed twenty sixth or higher in eight of his final 9 PGA Tour begins, together with a career-best T3 on the Masters. Add in a win on the DP World Tour’s Dubai Invitational in January it’s been a powerful 2024 for the 33-year-old Englishman.
However Fleetwood has additionally picked up a facet gig: caddie for his stepson Oscar Craig. Having grown up round one of many world’s foremost flushers it’s no shock that Craig has some {golfing} skill, however the 17-year-old took issues to the following degree this April when he entered the Problem Tour’s UAE Problem in Abu Dhabi. Nor was is a shock that Fleetwood would wish to assist out. Nonetheless, the visible of the seven-time DP World Tour winner in a caddie bib nonetheless took some getting used to simply two weeks faraway from his podium end on the Masters.
That week went nicely; Craig shot 3-under 69 on Thursday and 1-over 73 on Friday to make the lower, the one novice within the area to take action. Craig regarded delighted and Fleetwood maybe much more so coming off the inexperienced after 36 holes — he was virtually giddy.
Craig wound up T60, although as an novice and a stepson, we doubt there was a lot of an earnings/price negotiation. However he should have discovered a factor or two from his looper. However what did his looper be taught from him? This week Fleetwood supplied some perception after a first-round 5-under 65.
“Properly, I undoubtedly felt like, as a result of I wasn’t hitting the shot, I had no feeling in the direction of any golf shot,” he mentioned. “So once you’re caddying, you see what’s the correct golf shot, in all probability, otherwise you give your opinion otherwise you see issues very clear for what they’re. As a result of it’s not like I’m fearful about hitting it left, proper, lengthy, brief, no matter it’s, so that you say no matter it’s. I did take pleasure in that half.”
Faraway from the fog of battle and the worry of failure, there’s some readability to be discovered. Fleetwood added that there’s additionally one thing to be discovered about the best way golfers speak to themselves.
“I feel the best way I spoke to Oscar, I’d love to talk to myself like that much more typically,” Fleetwood mentioned. Lastly: it’s not a straightforward gig. “And yeah, I form of realized type of how onerous caddying might be at occasions however I don’t actually wish to inform those that.”
Fleetwood’s personal caddie scenario has been in flux. He and longtime looper Ian Finnis are one of the distinctive duos on Tour, visually placing due to their dimension distinction (Finnis is 6-foot-7, Fleetwood 5-foot-8) and immensely standard with followers, gamers and caddies alike. However Finnis has been out for months after a well being scare left him within the hospital — micro organism reached a gap in his coronary heart and required open-heart surgical procedure earlier than he started an in depth restoration course of.
Finnis supplied some particulars to Telegraph Sport. “They aren’t precisely certain what occurred however micro organism obtained right into a gap in my coronary heart that I’d lived with beforehand with no issues after which ate away each valves,” he mentioned. “They opened me up and the superb surgeon, Mr Generali, fitted a steel valve and by some miracle he fastened the opposite valve, saving me from getting a tissue one which might have had to get replaced each seven years or so.
“I’ve to precise large appreciation to Mr Generali and to all of the employees on the hospital. You realize, the NHS is de facto unimaginable. They’d me trying to stroll the day after in intensive care. It’s a steadiness however you want to use your coronary heart to get it higher.”
Fleetwood was beaming after his first match spherical again with Finnis.
“It was nice to have Fino again and wonderful technique to begin a match,” Fleetwood mentioned about his right-hand man’s return. “It feels good to have had a very good spherical in his first week, for him greater than something. It’s been nice. Felt so regular. We did an awesome job. Every little thing type of flowed, actually, at present. He made a few nice selections, so it’s not like he’s been away.”
They’ll have loads to speak about.
