Tommy Fleetwood produced a sublime final-round display to take home the title at the inaugural DP World India Championship.
The 34-year-old Englishman, who was top points scorer for Luke Donald’s European team that retained the Ryder Cup in New York last month, came into the final round at Delhi Golf Club two shots off leader Keita Nakajima of Japan. But Fleetwood immediately ate into Nakajima’s advantage with a birdie at the first as New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier also made strides during the early stages. The New Zealander found himself out in front around the mid-way stage thanks to six birdies in an eight-hole stretch. However, Hillier suffered a significant drop off during the back nine with a double-bogey at the 14th and two bogeys at the 15th and 18th as he fell away from contention.
The World No. 5 remained in the hunt battling it out against Nakajima during the back nine and managed to pull two shots clear with a birdie at the 14th as the pair entered the final stages of the round. But a confident Fleetwood kept his cool to match Nakajima to card a seven-under 65 to end on 22 under and claim an eighth DP World Tour title of his career, a triumph he was able to celebrate with his son, Frankie.
“We were at home last week and we were driving the buggy – I think we were playing golf together – and he [Frankie] just said randomly: ‘Do you know what you’ve never done? You’ve never won a tournament and then I’ve been able to run onto the 18th green’,” Fleetwood said.
“I had that written down all week. It was just another opportunity really. There’s going to be many more times where I hopefully get the chance to do that, but that was all day today what I had in my mind.
“Could I put myself in a position where I can actually make that moment happen? It’s just one of those little things. It means so much to me and that was really cool.”
It has been a triumphant last three month for Fleetwood. In addition to his Ryder Cup success, he also got his hands on a maiden PGA TOUR title at the TOUR Championship in August where he also saw him crowned FedExCup champion.
Nakajima hit a final-round 69 to finish runner up on 20 under while there was a three-way tie for third between England’s Alex Fitzpatrick, South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence, and Ireland’s Shane Lowry.
What is the next event?
The next event on the DP World Tour schedule is the Genesis Championship taking place between 23-26 October at WOO Jeong Hills CC in South Korea.