Tommy Fleetwood was back at Royal Birkdale on Monday with a question hanging over him that has followed him through years of near-misses: will he ever win a major championship? The 35-year-old, who grew up in Southport and once sneaked onto the course as a kid, was asked directly whether that title will ever come.
His answer was plain. Fleetwood said he would have to wait and find out, even while acknowledging that winning majors is the ultimate prize in the sport. He also said he would much prefer to have a major or two or three on his resume by the time his career is over, which is the kind of honesty that gives this week its edge.
The timing matters because The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale is the final major of golf’s season for the seventh straight year, since the PGA Championship moved to May. That makes this week the last chance for a player like Fleetwood to change the conversation before the major calendar resets again.
And Fleetwood has given himself reason to be part of that conversation. He has eight career major top-10 finishes, including runner-up results at the 2018 U.S. Open and the 2019 Open Championship. His last major top-10 came at the 2023 Masters, which means the drought is long enough now to make every fresh chance feel heavier than the last.
Still, the better question may not be whether Fleetwood can live without a major. He said dreams do come true and that they only stay dreams if you stop chasing them, which leaves him in the most honest place a contender can be: committed to the pursuit, unwilling to let the result define the whole career. The open leaderboard will keep moving, but for Fleetwood the larger test is whether this homecoming becomes another near-miss or the week that finally changes the story.
