Tommy Fleetwood’s quest to win his first major took another blow as he finished narrowly off the pace at The Open at St Andrew’s. Fleetwood has come close, but ultimately the quest for his first major eluded him, extending his pursuit to end his drought into 2023 The Masters. Due to his lack of a breakthrough, he does present a risk in betting for The Masters in the early outright odds, but using a free bet offer from comparison platforms like oddschecker presents a good opportunity to choose him as the new winner in this prestigious tournament to claim the Green Jacket for the first time and truly announce himself on the world stage.
He certainly has the credentials to lift a major crown. The Southport-born golfer was extremely impressive in his pursuit of the Claret Jug, but left himself too much to do on the final round. Fleetwood carded an incredible 11-under for the final two days of The Open, but his performance on day one left him off the pace of the leaders. Although he was outstanding over the weekend, he was powerless to watch Cameron Smith lay on an assault to win the Claret Jug for the first time.
Fleetwood has been a model of consistency in the majors in 2022, finishing in the top 20 of three of the four tournaments. However, he has lost ground to some of his contemporaries such as Smith, Scottie Scheffler and Matthew Fitzpatrick on the PGA Tour. Now that the events are over for the 2022 season, Fleetwood now has to regroup for another run in 2023. The good news for Fleetwood is that he has remained consistent, and if he continues to produce that level of form, sooner or later he should be right in contention from the off rather than playing catch-up on the final two days.
The important process for Fleetwood now is to not put himself under unnecessary pressure just because players in and around him have made their moves, particularly Fitzpatrick. The Yorkshireman is a similar age to Fleetwood and produced a brilliant performance at the US Open, but has had many highs and lows on the circuit before lifting his maiden major crown at Brookline.
It is important for Fleetwood to remember that the 2022 season has been a successful year, bouncing back to his best after a difficult two years. However, there are elements where he can improve, notably his start to majors. In all four competitions, he was either over-par or even-par after his first round. Once he masters that first round, he has proven to be able to go from strength-to-strength as the majors have progressed. This could make the crucial difference at The Masters and beyond in 2023.
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