EYES ON THE PRIZE

Tommy Fleetwood tells Michael Weston that he's ready and eager to scale the Open heights at St Andrews after a quiet couple of seasons

- Michael Weston

Tommy Fleetwood has been thinking about this coming July for some time. He makes no attempt to try and play the occasion down, nor bat questions back with cliches. This is not just another Major Championship. The 150th Open Championship at the Home of Golf is "the one".

The Southport pro has had numerous putts to win The Open... at Formby Hall, mainly, where he grew up playing. Lifting the Claret Jug is still the dream, although these days it's not so much of a fantasy. Runner-up to Shane Lowry at Royal Portrush in 2019, Fleetwood knows he has what it takes to go one better and fulfil a lifelong ambition.

"The Open is the event I've dreamed of since I was a kid," he says. "For as long as I play the game, that will be the one event I would choose to win."

"If I could choose one event to win and never play again, then it would be St Andrews. It's my favourite course. I love playing there. I love how the course plays differently every day. I love the history and I love the town, the people there. It's my dream event on my favourite course, so it's obviously something I'm very excited about."

Fleetwood made his Open Championship debut at Royal Liverpool in 2014. Despite the benefit of local knowledge and feeling quite at ease in the company of John Daly, the then 23-year-old missed the cut, as he did the following year at a blustery St Andrews. That one stung a bit. It wasn't the fact he missed the cut that rankled so much as his failure to perform in the kind of conditions he relishes.