2021 was, in many ways, the hardest year of Tommy Fleetwood’s career. Indeed, for the last few seasons, we have grown accustomed to Stockport’s finest winning on a fairly regular basis but 2021 would deliver a cruel blow as the 31-year-old lost his playing privileges on the PGA Tour after finishing outside the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings.
Whilst that would have undoubtedly been a setback for Fleetwood, the encouraging news since then is that the golfer has crept back into the top 50 of the official world golf rankings. Essentially, what this means is that Fleetwood will still be invited to the biggest tournaments in the world, starting with the Masters in early April. As things stand, the latest Masters betting 2022 odds price Fleetwood as 50/1 to win his first green jacket, which suggests that fishing atop of the leaderboard at Augusta National could be a stretch after an indifferent twelve months.
Congratulations @Thomas_Pieters well played!! Things to work on for me but great being back out again doing what I love. pic.twitter.com/Wmo5DJu7BA
— Tommy Fleetwood (@TommyFleetwood1) January 23, 2022
There have, however, been promising signs over the last few weeks which indicate that the Southport-born golfer could end up recording a respectable finish at the Masters given that he comes into the year’s first major having recorded three top 25 finishes in a row. With this in mind, you could say that even if the 2022 Masters may not involve the glory of winning, Fleetwood looks well set to carry on accumulating the world ranking points that will ensure he is still an ever-present at the world’s biggest events.
As far as getting back into the winner’s circle goes, it appears to be only a matter of time and that 2022 will be the year Fleetwood tastes success again. Of course, nothing is ever guaranteed in professional golf with regards to winning given that players can go years and even decades without doing so but as far as Fleetwood is concerned, he’s too good for that to be the case.
Besides that, Fleetwood’s last win came in 2019 during the Nedbank Golf Challenge so he’s certainly due another victory soon. Up until that euphoric day in Sun City, Fleetwood had won three times in 24 months, which shows how naturally he took to being in golf’s rarefied atmosphere.
Tommy Fleetwood wins the Nedbank Golf Challenge in a one-hole playoff to take home the 🏆 and $2.5 million. 💪pic.twitter.com/m95XNOxxLU
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) November 17, 2019
Indeed, Fleetwood joined some of the game’s most recognised names by winning the French Open, which was followed up by defending his Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship for the second year in a row in early 2018. It was a remarkable run that seemed to signal Fleetwood’s coming of age on tour after years of threatening to win.
So whilst 2021 was a year where silverware proved to be elusive, perhaps the most important thing to still keep in mind is that players also don’t forget how to win when they’ve done it as often as Fleetwood has in the past. Crucially, once a golfer has got over the winner’s line for the first time, then they generally continue to pick up victories along the way.
Everyone in Stockport and indeed England will hope that this is the case for Fleetwood as he sets out on his 2022 journey on tour with a point to prove.
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