A banner year for Tommy Fleetwood continued Sunday when the Englishman came from behind to win the HNA French Open.
Fleetwood started the day one shot behind two players, but he ended up one shot clear after a bogey-free 66 that gave him his second European Tour victory of the year. The 26-year-old also won in Abu Dhabi, finished second to Dustin Johnson at the WGC-Mexico Championship, and came in fourth last month at the U.S. Open.
Fleetwood got out of the gates quickly with two birdies over his first three holes, then added two more on Nos. 13-14 to briefly push his advantage to four shots. Uihlein birdied the 71st hole to cut the deficit to one, but Fleetwood closed with pars and Uihlein was unable to birdie the difficult finishing hole.
“It was good from start to finish, really. Nearly holed my first two iron shots,” Fleetwood said. “I played great today, felt comfy again. It’s always great to just test your game and test what you work on every day under the ultimate pressure.”
Fleetwood started the year ranked No. 99 in the world, and he entered this week at No. 21. But following his victory in the second Rolex Series event of the year, he’s expected to move up to No. 15 when the newest rankings are published. While this was Fleetwood’s fifth start at Le Golf National, he had missed the cut in each of his four prior trips.
Jon Rahm headlined the group that tied for 10th at 5 under, one that also included BMW PGA champ Alex Noren and former world No. 1 Lee Westwood.
Uihlein earned a spot in The Open for his runner-up finish as part of the Open Qualifying Series, as did Mike Lorenzo-Vera and Alexander Bjork who both tied for third. The Rolex Series and Open Qualifying Series both continue next week with the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Portstewart in Northern Ireland.
Source: Internet
