Tearful Tommy Fleetwood fights through effects of heatstroke to end trophy drought
Tommy Fleetwod was in tears after rising from his sickbed to win his first tournament for three years in Sun City on Sunday.
The Englishman was advised not to tee it up on Thursday because of heat stroke and again was deliberating whether to withdraw on Saturday morning because of the resulting fatigue. Yet the Englishman battled on to prevail at the Nedbank Golf Challenge and take home the $1 million (£840,000) cheque.
Remarkably, this was the last title the 31-year-old won and, because of the pandemic, he was the defending champion. The Gary Player Country Club at the South Africa resort is a ball-striker’s paradise and so his iron-play magnificence shone through in his final-round five-under 67 for an 11-under total. That and his determination and the treatment of a good medic.
“It was touch and go on Thursday morning whether I would pull out and then yesterday I felt like I had nothing in me. I was really poorly again,” he said. “The doctor here has been amazing. I just gave his little son the winning golf ball. Without him there was not a chance I’d have played. I just thought, ‘If I can just keep going a hole at a time’.”
Maybe Rory McIlroy should also send that doctor a thank-you note. New Zealander Ryan Fox finished second, just one stroke behind, and if he had won for a third time this campaign would have leapfrogged Northern Ireland’s world No 1 on the DP World Tour’s order of merit going into the seasonal finale that begins in Dubai on Thursday.
Courtesy of Ryder Cup team-mate Fleetwood, McIlroy knows he must only finish above Fox to end in front of the New Zealander.
“If you had given me second at the start of the week and closing the gap by a decent amount on Rory, I would have taken it,” Fox, the son of All Black legend Grant, said. “I still have some work to do – he’s the No 1 in the world for a reason.”
