Tommy Fleetwood and his stepson Oscar Craig.
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Tommy Fleetwood has been busy.
He entered this week’s Genesis Scottish Open on a strong run of form; he’s finished 26th or better in eight of his last nine PGA Tour starts, including a career-best T3 at the Masters. Add in a win at the DP World Tour’s Dubai Invitational in January it’s been a strong 2024 for the 33-year-old Englishman.
But Fleetwood has also picked up a side gig: caddie for his stepson Oscar Craig. Having grown up around one of the world’s foremost flushers it’s no surprise that Craig has some golfing ability, but the 17-year-old took things to the next level this April when he entered the Challenge Tour’s UAE Challenge in Abu Dhabi. Nor was is a surprise that Fleetwood would want to help out. Still, the visual of the seven-time DP World Tour winner in a caddie bib still took some getting used to just two weeks removed from his podium finish at the Masters.
That week went well; Craig shot 3-under 69 on Thursday and 1-over 73 on Friday to make the cut, the only amateur in the field to do so. Craig looked delighted and Fleetwood perhaps even more so coming off the green after 36 holes — he was practically giddy.
Craig wound up T60, though as an amateur and a stepson, we doubt there was much of an earnings/fee negotiation. But he must have learned a thing or two from his looper. But what did his looper learn from him? This week Fleetwood offered some insight after a first-round 5-under 65.
“Well, I definitely felt like, because I wasn’t hitting the shot, I had no feeling towards any golf shot,” he said. “So when you’re caddying, you see what’s the right golf shot, probably, or you give your opinion or you see things very clear for what they are. Because it’s not like I’m worried about hitting it left, right, long, short, whatever it is, so you say whatever it is. I did enjoy that part.”
Removed from the fog of war and the fear of failure, there’s some clarity to be found. Fleetwood added that there’s also something to be learned about the way golfers talk to themselves.
“I think the way I spoke to Oscar, I would love to speak to myself like that a lot more often,” Fleetwood said. Finally: it’s not an easy gig. “And yeah, I kind of realized sort of how hard caddying can be at times but I don’t really want to tell people that.”
Fleetwood’s own caddie situation has been in flux. He and longtime looper Ian Finnis are one of the most distinctive duos on Tour, visually striking because of their size difference (Finnis is 6-foot-7, Fleetwood 5-foot-8) and immensely popular with fans, players and caddies alike. But Finnis has been out for months after a health scare left him in the hospital — bacteria reached a hole in his heart and required open-heart surgery before he began an extensive recovery process.
Finnis offered some details to Telegraph Sport. “They are not exactly sure what happened but bacteria got into a hole in my heart that I’d lived with previously with no problems and then ate away both valves,” he said. “They opened me up and the amazing surgeon, Mr Generali, fitted a metal valve and by some miracle he fixed the other valve, saving me from getting a tissue one which would have had to be replaced every seven years or so.
“I have to express massive appreciation to Mr Generali and to all the staff at the hospital. You know, the NHS is really incredible. They had me attempting to walk the day after in intensive care. It’s a balance but you need to use your heart to get it better.”
Fleetwood was beaming after his first tournament round back with Finnis.
“It was great to have Fino back and lovely way to start a tournament,” Fleetwood said about his right-hand man’s return. “It feels nice to have had a really good round in his first week, for him more than anything. It’s been great. Felt so normal. We did a great job. Everything sort of flowed, really, today. He made a couple of great decisions, so it’s not like he’s been away.”
They’ll have plenty to talk about.
