Fleetwood set for Olympic gold challenge thanks to ‘home’ support

Tommy Fleetwood hopes a ‘home’ Le Golf National crowd can fire him to Olympic glory at Paris 2024.
The Team GB star, 33, remains in red-hot contention heading into the final day after delivering another rock-solid display on Saturday.
The seven-time European Tour winner sits just one shot off the lead as Spain’s Jon Rahm and South Africa’s defending champion Xander Schauffele lie level in the gold medal position on 14 under par.
Fleetwood has history at the famous course after being part of the European team that beat the United States in the 2018 Ryder Cup and also winning the French Open the previous year.
He’s been roared on by a raucous Parisian crowd this week and believes being adopted as their favourite can enhance his hopes of success.
“A couple of players asked if this was my home country!” he joked. “They’ve been amazing with me. It’s definitely an Olympic crowd, the atmosphere is amazing and I’ve always considered myself lucky with the support I get and the connections I make with people.
“But these guys have been amazing. To be playing the Olympics, to be in contention and to get the support I have, it’s all the things you dream of.
“So if you can’t enjoy it then what’s the point?
“I’m very, very excited. The leaderboard is amazing, the leaderboard you’d expect at the Olympics. And it’s what the sport deserves really and I’m happy to be a part of it. I’ve been doing very well so far so we’ll see.”
Two-time major winner Rahm and Tokyo gold medal-winner Schauffele, the recently-crowned Open champion, lead the field heading into Sunday as Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and America’s Scottie Scheffler sit just three shots behind.
And also lurking are Norwegian Nicolai Hojgaard and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, one shot ahead of McIlroy and Scheffler and two behind fluent Fleetwood.
The Merseyside star shot a brilliant seven under on Friday to catapult himself into contention and is now just 18 holes away from emulating the exploits of Team GB’s Rio 2016 gold medal winner Justin Rose.
But Matt Fitzpatrick, Fleetwood’s teammate here in France, will not be in the battle for the podium after being forced to withdraw from the competition with a thumb injury.
Speaking about 2022 US Open champion, Fleetwood added: “I feel for Fitzy. The Olympics is special and only comes around every four years. I’m sure he’s gutted.”
Fleetwood started sluggishly in Paris but propelled himself up the leaderboard with a razor-sharp second round.
And after an admirable 16th-place finish in Tokyo three years ago, he now goes into the final day with a real chance of adding another gold medal to Team GB’s tally.
Fleetwood managed to scrape a par on Saturday’s final hole to keep himself just one shot behind heavyweights Rahm and Schauffele.
And he insists he is relishing a battle with the best heading into Sunday’s hotly-anticipated finale.
“It’s a lovely feeling to get a par on the last hole,” he added.
“You never want to bogey the last so it’s an amazing feeling when you scrape a par like that and it was a beautiful putt to end the day, which leaves me just behind the leaders. They’re clearly very good at golf so as close to them as I can get tomorrow the better.”
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