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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Max Schreiber

Tommy Fleetwood Has First Win in Sight, Leads by Four at FedEx St. Jude Championship

Tommy Fleetwood leads the FedExCup playoff opener after 36 holes. | Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Last week at the Wyndham Championship, Cam Young finally secured his elusive first PGA Tour win. 

Seven days later, will Tommy Fleetwood follow suit?

The 34-year-old Englishman, who has 42 top 10s on Tour without a win—the most of all time—is leading the FedEx St. Jude Championship after 36 holes by four strokes at 13-under par. 

Four strokes back of Fleetwood are Collin Morikawa, Akshay Bhatia and Justin Rose, who still has three holes to finish with play suspended at 3:31 p.m. local time in Memphis due to inclement weather. 

“Of course, when you shoot two good scores, it’s easy to say everything has been going well,” Fleetwood said after rounds of 63 and 64, “but I think for the most part, I’ve been very good off the tee, put myself in position to have a go at the course. My iron play has been good and solid, and I’ve rolled the ball well. The greens are really true and I’ve had a nice eye on the greens and good reads and rolling it well.”

Morikawa, meanwhile, is using his fifth caddie of the season and has only one top 10 since the Players Championship in March. Yet, the two-time major champion is still confident in his abilities to end his two-year winless drought. 

“It’s tough, but the self-belief when I tee it up is always there,” said Morikawa, who holed out from 127 yards for eagle on the par-4 9th in Round 2. “It’s just a hard game. Every day you don’t know what to expect. You don’t know what you’re going to get. But when you’re able to kind of see some shots that you say, ‘O.K., I know what I can do with this,’ it then bleeds in a good way.”

That’s a feeling Fleetwood knows all too well. Despite establishing himself as one of the world’s top players, there have been many close calls and heartbreaks in 161 Tour starts. Most recently, the Travelers Championship in June. He held the lead through 71 holes, but three-putted for bogey on the final hole with a one-stroke lead as Keegan Bradley made birdie for the victory. 

Now, with that defeat in the rearview, Fleetwood’s making his first start since a T16 at the British Open. But with his first victory in sight, he’s not looking too far ahead. 

“Happy to put myself in with a chance over the weekend,” Fleetwood said. “I think that’s exactly where you want to be and keep testing yourself. Yeah, it hasn't happened for me yet out on the PGA Tour, but I would much rather be up there and not quite get it done than not there at all. And who knows, maybe this weekend is the weekend and we’ll see, and we’ll crack on from there.”


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tommy Fleetwood Has First Win in Sight, Leads by Four at FedEx St. Jude Championship.

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