The last time Tommy Fleetwood teed it up in a competitive round was a month ago at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, where he finished third.
However, when he got home for one of his first periods of rest in some time, he decided to start tinkering with his putting. He put a new TaylorMade putter in the bag, and on Wednesday in his pre-tournament press conference, he praised how he had practiced with it, but he was excited to put it to use in the heat of competition.
“To have that time at home to work on something that I’ve put a lot of effort into and something I’m really interested in; and like I said, TaylorMade have done an amazing job with it, and it’s felt good,” Fleetwood said.
After one round, it looks like a worthwhile equipment change.
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Fleetwood shot 10-under 62, tying the course record at Yas Links to take the first-round lead at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the DP World Tour’s penultimate event on the schedule. He was the best putter in the field Thursday, needing only 26 putts, the lowest of any competitor in the field, and 1.5 putts per hole, which was second in the 70-player field. Fleetwood had eight birdies and an eagle en route to his record-tying round.
“Putted amazing,” he said. “Felt like I read the greens so well. Beautiful pace control and hit a lot of good putts and started holing them. I worked even all the way through to the last hole, I just hit perfect putts.
“When you shoot a 62, obviously everything is going to have gone very, very well. Just happy to have got off to a great start.”
Tommy Fleetwood of England putts on the 18th green during day one of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship 2024 at Yas Links Golf Course on November 07, 2024, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Fleetwood said through the second half of 2024 he felt he wasn’t getting everything out of his putting as he would’ve liked. He’s a longtime pupil of Phil Kenyon, the putting coach who helped Scottie Scheffler drastically improve on the greens this year.
However, Fleetwood ran into Ken Brown and David Howell, former Scottish and English, respectively, professional golfers, who started to discuss putting with Fleetwood, sparking him to make the change
Early on, the results are paying off.
“I’ve worked with Phil Kenyon for a long time. He’s an…
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