NEW DELHI — Tommy Fleetwood’s best season continued on Sunday with a two-shot victory over Keita Nakajima at the Indian Championship, followed by four straight birdies around the turn and a 7-under 65 to cap it off.
Fleetwood will be celebrating for the third time in the past three months. He won the FedEx Cup title with his first win on American soil, became the top point scorer for the European team with a win at the Ryder Cup, and now has his first win on the European Tour this year.
Nakajima started the final round at Derry Golf Club with a two-shot lead and played without a bogey. He couldn’t keep up with Fleetwood’s pace. Fleetwood made four consecutive birdies from the par-3 seventh, turning a two-shot deficit into a two-shot lead.
“A lot of good things happened this year, but I think some things let me down,” Fleetwood said. “It feels great to win again.”
Even after his highlight at the Ryder Cup, the 34-year-old from England felt he needed to achieve more this year, and a European Tour victory – his eighth on tour – was high on his list. Although Fleetwood has had great success on the PGA Tour this year, he has not yet qualified for the final two tournaments on the European schedule.
Now he is. The win moved him from 94th to 25th in the Race to Dubai, qualifying him for the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Tour Championship, which ends the season in Dubai.
The best part for Fleetwood was watching his 8-year-old son, Frankie, run up to the 18th green after tapping for par and finishing with a 22-under 266.
While the two were playing golf recently, Fleetwood said his son told him he had never won a tournament where he could run up to the green and say hello.
“All day today I was thinking, ‘Can I put myself in a position to make that happen?'” Fleetwood said. “It’s just one of those little things that means so much to me. It means so much to me. It was really cool. That’s what I wanted to do all day.”
Nakajima struggled with the accuracy of his tee shot when he needed to recover late in the final round, but holed enough putts to come close. He shot a 69, placing him in the top 10 on the list of European Tour players eligible for next year’s PGA Tour card.
Shane Rowley (68), Thriston Lawrence (65) and Alex Fitzpatrick (67) tied for third at 270.
Playing in India for the first time in his career, Rory McIlroy birdied the final hole for a 71 and finished tied for 26th place, 11 strokes behind Fleetwood.
