NEW DELHI — Tommy Fleetwood’s best season got even better on Sunday when he made four straight birdies around the turn to finish with a 7-under 65 to beat Keita Nakajima by two strokes in the Indian Championship.
For the third time in the past three months, Fleetwood has reason to celebrate: his first win on American soil en route to the FedEx Cup, another Ryder Cup win for Team Europe to become the points leader, and now his first European Tour win of the year.
Nakajima led by two shots and went bogey-free in the final round at Delhi Golf Club. He just couldn’t keep up with Fleetwood, who turned a two-shot deficit into a two-shot lead with four straight birdies starting on the par-3 seventh.
“I feel like even though a lot of good things happened this year, there were a few things that disappointed me,” Fleetwood said. “It feels great to win another one.”
Even after another Ryder Cup highlight, the 34-year-old from England still feels he has more to achieve this year, with a win on the European Tour – his eighth career Tour victory – being his number one goal. Fleetwood, despite having great success on the PGA Tour this year, is still ineligible for the final two events of the European schedule.
Now he is. The victory moved him from No. 94 to No. 25 in the Dubai tournament rankings, qualifying him for the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Dubai End-of-Season Tour Championship.
Fleetwood’s happiest moment was watching his 8-year-old son, Frankie, run onto the 18th green after making a putt to finish at 22-under 266.
They were playing golf recently and Fleetwood said his son told him he had never won a tournament where the boy could run to the green to greet him.
“All day today, I was thinking, ‘Am I ready to make this happen?'” Fleetwood said. “It’s just one of those little things that means a lot to me. It means a lot to me. It’s really cool. It’s what I want to do all day long.”
Nakajima struggled with accuracy off the tee late in the final round when he needed to catch up, although he made enough putts to stay close. He shot a 69 and moved into the top 10 of European Tour players eligible to receive PGA Tour cards next year.
Shane Lowry (68), Thriston Lawrence (65) and Alex Fitzpatrick (67) tied for third at 270.
Rory McIlroy, playing in India for the first time in his career, birdied the last hole for a 71 and finished tied for 26th, 11 strokes behind Fleetwood.
