PGA Tour star who has wife with 23-year age gap could win £2.6m at Rory McIlroy's expense

Wales Online

3 days ago

PGA Tour star who has wife with 23-year age gap could win £2.6m at Rory McIlroy's expense
Tommy Fleetwood has never won a title on the PGA Tour, but that could all change this weekend as the Travelers Championship continues to unfold at TPC River Highlands
Rory McIlroy is playing well at the Travelers Championship
(Image: Getty Images )
Tommy Fleetwood could win £2.6million at this weekend's Travelers Championship should he achieve his first win on the PGA Tour.
The 34-year-old Southport-born star has never tasted success on the Tour, despite holding professional status for 15 years now. However, that could all change on Sunday should Fleetwood improve on his fantastic start at TPC River Highlands.
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Fleetwood currently sits at T7 after the opening round of the Travelers, with an incredibly respectable score of four-under-par. For context, that's just two strokes behind career Grand Slam winner Rory McIlroy, who is T3 at six-under.
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And as he is just four shots behind joint-leaders Austin Eckroat and Scottie Scheffler, he may find himself embroiled in a battle for the ages to clinch the Travelers by the end of Sunday's play.
With four top 10 finishes to his name in 2025 at the Charles Schwab Challenge, the Truist Championship, the RBC Heritage and the Genesis Invitational, it seems as though a win is incredibly close for Fleetwood at present. However, he'll face stiff competition in seeing such a feat at the Travelers, given the achievements of McIlroy and Scheffler this year.
McIlroy added a long-awaited Masters title to his collection of trophies in April to become the sixth man in history to achieve all four major championships. He has also won twice on the PGA Tour.
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However, McIlroy's form has dwindled ever so slightly as of late, settling for a T47 at the PGA Championship, missing the cut completely at the Canadian Open and seeing a T19 placement at last weekend's US Open. World No. 1 Scheffler, meanwhile, won the PGA Championship in May before adding another win to his name at the Memorial earlier this month - and seems to be the man to beat this weekend.
Tommy Fleetwood has impressed at the Travelers
(Image: Getty Images )
Should Fleetwood fend off stiff competition, he will be awarded a hefty £2.6m payday for lifting the title at the Travelers - adding to his incredible £21.7m career earnings on the PGA Tour thus far. It's clear that Fleetwood's wife of eight years, Clare, will be cheering on the Briton this weekend as he shoots for the first win on the Tour.
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Fleetwood and Clare initially met in 2015 when the golfer switched to Hambric Sports Management, instantly hitting it off before a romantic relationship developed off the greens and the fairways, despite initial apprehension from Clare given she is 23 years his senior as well as his manager.
The two eventually began courting before tying the knot in 2017, and have been happily married ever since. It comes after McIlroy has seemingly had a change of attitude at the Travelers this week.
Tommy Fleetwood has been married to Clare since 2017
(Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror )
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The 36-year-old faced criticism for his actions at the US Open, spotted throwing his club in frustration and smashing up a tee-box marker in frustration as the greens and fairways of Oakmont Country Club got the better of him. Meanwhile, McIlroy decided to snub the media during his opening rounds, while claiming that he had "earned the right" to pick and choose his engagements with reporters.
However, McIlroy has seemed cheerful this week thus far, telling the media after his opening round: "Yeah, it was good. I said yesterday, this is a nice tonic compared to last week in terms of it's a slightly more benign golf course and the penalty for missing isn't quite as severe.
"You can give yourself plenty of chances for birdies, which Keegan [Bradley] and I did today. Yeah, overall it was a good start to the tournament, and I think when you're in a two-ball like that and we can sort of feed off one another a little bit, too, that's nice, as well."