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By Kent Gray
With the last of his six European Tour wins as recent as November’s Nedbank Challenge in South Africa and four of them coming in the last three seasons, Tommy Fleetwood has established himself as one of global golf’s most consistent threats.

But since back-to-back triumphs in Abu Dhabi in 2017-18, the just-turned 29-year-old has become something of a nearly-man in the Middle East. A share of second behind Lee Westwood in the UAE capital last week followed a solo second to Jon Rahm at the DP World Tour Championship a week after his Nedbank win.

With chances to repeat his 2017 Race to Dubai glory going into the last event of the past two seasons at Jumeirah Golf Estates, the world No.10 has also frustratingly had to settle for third and second places in the season-long order of merit.

Surely then, Fleetwood is getting sick of being the bridesmaid in UAE?

“It’s better than third,” was the Englishman’s fair retort after having the honour in the two-day wave of big-name media conferences to preview the 31st Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

“I think the great thing is, and the positive thing is, I’m putting myself up there now. Sometimes people just play better. You know, Jon in DP World played the best golf — he played the best golf throughout the year, really, and deserved to win the Race to Dubai. I came up one shy last week; Lee was the best player on the weekend.

“There’s plenty of times that’s going to happen, but I’m not going to crumble over this at the moment. The great thing is that I’m there or thereabouts and if I can keep doing that often enough, eventually it will be my turn. I’d like to be the one that wins, but also, I’d rather be the guy that’s second or third or fifth and if I can keep my golf consistent, and if this is the level I’m playing at more often than not, then it’s a very, very good thing.”

Indeed. After knocking off the inevitable early-season ring rust in an opening 71, Fleetwood got progressively better over the week in Abu Dhabi with rounds of 70, 67 and 63 to finish -17, two adrift of Westwood. The nine under romp around The National on Sunday, especially considering he could only manage a closing par on the scorable par 5, is a nice memory to bring into the week at Emirates Golf Club.

Fleetwood was T-16 on the Majlis last January and has two top-10s in the ‘Major of the Middle East’, including a best of T-6 in 2018. Is there something about the courses in this part of the world that particularly suit your eye?

“No, in all honesty. Abu Dhabi [where he missed four cuts in five years] has felt like a hard golf course for me for a long time. I think after 2017, I turned up in 2018 and felt like it suited me a lot better but even this year there’s shots that just don’t fit my eye and I feel like I could do better on this course [the Majlis],” he said.

Fleetwood plays his third shot on the 18th green during the final round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on January 19, 2020. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

“I feel this course, I almost feel more comfortable on it than Abu Dhabi, but I haven’t played anywhere near as well on it. But I’d like to feel that the way I work and how I try and improve certain areas of my game, that generally most golf courses, I feel like I’ve got a chance of competing on and doing well on. So just so happens that the Middle East has been very kind to me at the moment.”

Or perhaps even a little unkind given so many near-misses which haven’t been confined to the Middle East; still searching for his PGA Tour breakthrough, Fleetwood finished runner-up at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and T-3 at the Arnold Palmer en-route to 16th place in last season’s FedEx Cup.

With his remarkably consistent run – he last missed a cut on the European Tour at the Open de France in July 2018 and on the PGA Tour at the Wells Fargo Championship a month earlier the same year – Fleetwood is a good bet this week. It seems a maiden major is only a matter of time too, even if he’s never played Winged Foot or Royal St. George’s, the venues for this year’s U.S. Open and Open Championship.

“The majors are the toughest tests and that’s it. They challenge every part of our game. They challenge your mental side. They challenge patience and if you’re up there with a chance to win, they challenge how ready you are to go on and win those events. Unfortunately it’s not happened for me yet, but like I say, hopefully my career is progressing in the right way to eventually become a major champion.

“Those are really the events that change your life or change your career. Any time they come around, like I say, it’s a test, really, because everybody wants to win those ones. You can put so much emphasis on, which is actually right, and some people are better at winning than others. I think last year, preparation, I got a couple of things wrong; disappointed but you learn, and hopefully I’ll be better at that this year.

“You’re talking about second-place finishes in the last couple events in the UAE or second-place finishes in the in majors, the positive thing is they’re second-place finishes, I’m up there plenty of times, and hopefully it’s just a matter of time and eventually it will be my time and I would love to get one whenever that is.”