Tommy Fleetwood has had a dream for his entire life. He has seen it when he’s closed his eyes, and he has envisioned it in quiet moments on and off the golf course.
There’s a term for the space in between sleep and awake. It’s called hypnopompia, the state of near-consciousness in which dreams and reality blur, producing momentary lucid visions. Put simply, it’s a brief moment when you are living your dreams.
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Tommy Fleetwood never fell asleep this week at his home Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. But he didn’t need to feel like he was living out a dream he’d long conjured in his mind. He just wasn’t sure how his dream would end.
Fleetwood, who grew up in Southport and used to sneak onto Royal Birkdale as a kid, was the toast of this Open. Like Rory McIlroy at Royal Portrush, the Birkdale crowds flocked to Tommy Lad all week, trying to inject energy to push him toward the thing they all wanted. Fleetwood entered the weekend in the mix and vaulted into contention on Saturday. In the end, a few late dropped shots left Fleetwood five shots back entering the final round. He had spent all week soaking in the love and energy of his home crowd. He wanted Sunday to have the fairytale ending for them, as much as for himself.
But as Fleetwood explained 15 hours before he pegged it to start his Sunday Open quest, this week had already been all he needed.
“There’s no pressure on me at all really, except for my own expectations, and of course it’s a really beautiful thing that the town is so hopeful for me and they want me to do well,” Fleetwood said on Saturday. “I can’t ask for any more from thousands and thousands of people out there. No, I don’t feel pressure. I felt nerves this week and excitement and adrenaline, but that’s my own expectations. The crowd have been incredible. They’ve made a massive difference to me. I just said over there, whatever happens tomorrow — like yesterday evening, the first tee every day, today when I was in contention, that’s stuff that I’ll have for life. To be honest, how many people in the golfing world get to experience that with the crowd that much on your side? It’s been a very special week for me, no matter what. If I can get it tomorrow, I could make it even more special.
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“You daydream and you dream about the biggest things possible and then you try and make it a reality,” Fleetwood said Saturday. “To be honest, I’ve been pretty close to it this week. Today was as close as you’re going to get. I was within one of the lead at The Open playing on the back nine. It’s been pretty close already, and then you’ve just got the ultimate at the end of it, which would be holding the Claret Jug. Life is all about experiences, and I think I’ve had some of the best experiences of my life so far this week.”
On Sunday, Fleetwood arrived one final time at the first tee and received a hero’s welcome, all of Southport trying to create a tidal wave of emotion and energy for him to ride to the dream finish. Fleetwood knew he would need a special round and some help. But he did his part by rolling in a 73-foot birdie putt at the first to send Royal Birkdale into a frenzy.
“That was a bonus, wasn’t it? That was a cool moment,” a smiling Fleetwood said after his round.
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Fleetwood birdied Nos. 5 and 8 and stood in the ninth fairway just one back of the leaders, who were stuck in neutral. Standing in the ninth fairway, dreams and reality started to blur together for Fleetwood, but not all dreams end the way we think. Fleetwood’s approach shot at nine went long of the green, and he couldn’t get up and down for par. He dropped shots at 10 and 11 and his Open Championship hopes fizzled as he finished three shots back of eventual winner Ryan Fox.
But what Fleetwood found at Royal Birkdale this week — what he’d expected when he arrived — is that this dream Open was never about where he finished on the leaderboard. Winning was the ultimate goal, yes, but what Fleetwood wanted more than anything was to embrace an atmosphere and occasion few in golf get to enjoy. He wanted to make sure he lived and was present for the experience of a home Open with the town of Southport along for the ride. Whatever happened, happened.
Fleetwood parred his next five holes and then set out to give his home Open a proper send-off. He birdied the par-5 17th, split the fairway with his drive at 18 and hit his approach to 9 feet. Then, as he walked toward the green, the crowds rose as one to shower the local boy with the adoration reserved for someone who had given them something more valuable than a Southport Claret Jug — permission to dream.
As they did, Tommy Fleetwood’s emotions flowed.
“Eighteen was pretty emotional,” Fleetwood said. “Yeah, it was just very, very special. I’ve just said a couple times that, like — you know, this disappointment that I didn’t win today or I couldn’t get it done when I was in a really good position, of course there’s only one person that gets to win it, and like my dream of winning The Open will carry on and I’ll continue to chase it. But stuff like that, walking down 18 and the atmosphere out there, that was beyond stuff that I’ve dreamt of. That was just stuff that I never imagined. The crowds were amazing, and they made it the most special week ever for me, and I can’t thank them enough.”
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Fleetwood soaked in the cheers and love as he reached the 18th green, and then he gave everyone one more moment to celebrate, as he rolled in the putt for a closing birdie. As the cheers continued, Tommy Lad, with tears welling in his eyes, doffed his cap, waved it and put his hand over his heart to thank his hometown.
“That was heavy stuff, like they were incredible,” Fleetwood said. “Like I just alluded to, as a kid when you’re dreaming of having a putt to win The Open or playing The Open or winning The Open, that’s one thing, but I could never imagine that scene on 18, getting the ovation and the support that I have this week. That’s incredibly special. I do know how incredibly lucky I am to have experienced that. I’m so grateful for everyone because that’s like stuff that my kids are watching that, and I think it’s so cool that they get to experience that. Yeah, I can’t ask for any more from everybody.”
Psychologist Carl Jung, who studied dreams, posited that dreams are not expressions of our repressed desires but rather offer a subconscious glimpse of ourselves to help us find balance.
“In each of us there is another whom we do not know,” Jung wrote. “He speaks to us in dreams and tells us how differently he sees us from the way we see ourselves.”
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But as Fleetwood’s dream week unfolded at Royal Birkdale, the vision couldn’t be any clearer. There was nothing unknown. No part of Fleetwood we didn’t see. There was just a man from Southport in front of his family, friends and fans; in front of a place that is part of his DNA, trying to give them everything they’d given him.
There was just Tommy Fleetwood living a dream, eyes wide open, albeit a little red, in the place where it all began.
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