Cliff Hawkins

By Joel Beall
Tommy Fleetwood’s quarantine was not so much a quarantine as it was a piece of golf heaven.

Fleetwood is making his first appearance in the PGA Tour’s return to golf at the 3M Open this week, having spent the past few months in his England home. Per United States COVID-19 travel restrictions, Fleetwood was forced to quarantine for two weeks when he arrived to resume tour play. Fleetwood and his family set up shop in the Hamptons, and thanks to caddie Ian Finnis’s social media account, we know that Fleetwood and his looper spent some of that time at Shinnecock Hills.

As he explained on Tuesday when speaking to the media, turns out that was only part of Fleetwood’s “confinement.” Take it away, Tommy.

“The conditions were slightly easier,” Fleetwood said, comparing his recent Shinny round to his 63 at the 2018 U.S. Open. “There was a score to be had out there. I played a couple of places, I played National and I played Friar’s Head and those places were great.

“That’s the great thing. Again, I think originally going back to we can just get out there and be in your own little world or your own bubble and separate. I absolutely enjoyed playing a couple of courses and having the opportunity to do that while feeling like I was mentally preparing and physically preparing for these weeks. But it’s a beautiful part of the world to be, so there were no complaints.”

No complaints about playing Shinneock, National Golf Links of America and Friar’s Head? Just the fourth, eighth and 15th best courses in the country, while staying in the Hamptons, no less. The poor bastard.

Unfortunately, that dream vacation, er, quarantine has come to an end. Fleetwood has a busy schedule ahead, planning to stay in the United States until September’s U.S. Open. “In the country for a long period of time and hopefully make the most of it, make it count,” Fleetwood noted.

However, despite his Hamptons’ sojourn, as well as his buddy Frankie Molinari’s move to California, Fleetwood has no plans on making his home on this side of the pond.

“Not really,” Fleetwood said on his American prospects. “You know, kids are in school. This is very much a one-off situation. Hopefully it’s a one-off situation. For now we’re very settled at home. My parents are in the U.K., [my wife’s] parents are in the U.K. The way travel goes these days, you can easily do a few weeks on and go home and stuff. The way the world is, nothing is that far away.

“But we’ll see. You never say never and you never know where the world is going to take you, but we’ll see. Definitely, for the foreseeable future, Oscar’s only got two years left in high school and Mo’s got three, so those guys can kind of go through that and then we’ll see. I kind of feel like I’m landing you into my family planning at the moment if you want to discuss it, but definitely, for the foreseeable future I’ll be in the U.K.”