At Valspar, Tommy Fleetwood trying to finally match play with results

Pay little attention to Tommy Fleetwood’s results this year.

Fleetwood owns just one top-20 finish in six starts since the calendar turned, at the Genesis Invitational. But he also has only missed one cut, and he ranks inside the top 25 in both strokes gained approach (22) and around the green (sixth).

“Overall, four days play, I feel like I played some tournaments where I played relatively well and haven’t scored as well as I should have done this year,” Fleetwood explained Friday at the Valspar Championship. “So far just been lacking some really good results. But all you can do is keep playing.”

Last week was the perfect microcosm to Fleetwood’s year, as he fired a third-round 65 at The Players before backing up to T-27 with a closing 76.

This week, Fleetwood finds himself in the mix and with another opportunity to finally take advantage – even as he continues to struggle off the tee; losing about a half stroke to the field through 36 holes. At the midway point at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead Course, Fleetwood is 5 under, just two shots back of leader Adam Schenk, after rounds of 68-69.

On Friday, Fleetwood managed three birdies on the back nine, his first nine, and then opened the second half of his second round with an eagle at the par-5 first, where he stuck a 5-iron to 3 feet and rolled in the putt.

Full-field scores Valspar Championship

He gave a couple shots back, at Nos. 4 and 8, but he wasn’t fretting afterward. As the 32-year-old Englishman chases his first career PGA Tour title, he was asked Friday about patience.

“Sometimes you have it, sometimes you lose it, sometimes you are somewhere in between,” said Fleetwood, who picked up his first worldwide win since 2019 late last year on the DP World Tour. “I think so far this week I’ve done a good job of it. I think it’s just always something you pick up on, whether it’s your own expectations or trying to force things when you feel like it’s not going your way. It’s such a difficult thing to do. I can only sort of speak about the last two days, and I feel like I’ve done a good job of that. I just want to keep that attitude going into the weekend.

“Obviously, the further you get sort of along the week the harder it gets in a way. But, yeah, just keep the attitude going and take each shot as it comes.”