Tommy Fleetwood keeps dreaming. So does everyone else at the Open

SOUTHPORT, England — There is a popular saying in golf that there are no pictures on score cards; just numbers. It's all about the whole numbers written down and the math they do. This saying is famous because it is true most of the time.

Not just Saturday for Tommy Fleetwood in the town he grew up in. We what is needed pictures on the scorecard, because 18 holes have come and gone and, somehow, he's a shot further away from the lead in the Open Championship (5) than when his day started (4). And because that score doesn't tell us anything directly about one of the most entertaining rounds by any player at the Open in recent memory.

Yes, the scorecard lies on Saturday night at Royal Birkdale. Fleetwood trail a stronger opponent now than on Saturday morning, and are running out of holes to catch. A true connoisseur would say that it has become too difficult, but Royal Birkdale was not included in the facts this week. Covered by dreamers.

If you could add pictures to the scorecard of Fleetwood's third round, you would stick a few spectators on their hands and knees, struggling up these impossible sand dunes to see their master. Forget the mounds, I mean – the card can show people climbing over other people. It will include a photo of Guy Kinnings, CEO of the European Tour, pressed up against the rope on the 11th. He had to look at it, too.

This score card will be loud because it will be loud be to be noisy. European football songs based on his name. Tomey's boy this, Tomey's boy that, at that height, is a Scouse accent. They even broke into song The Spirit of the Bluesthe fight song of Everton FC, Tommy's favorite football club. Often Everton (The Blues) fans don't get along with Liverpool (Reds) fans. But one golfer in particular can unite them, it seems.

“I know you're a blue-nosed c**t, Tommy, but I still love you,” shouted another LFC fan. The marshal on the 12th tee offered something very mild:

“He's just like that loved, right?”

You really are.

And to understand what's on the line at this Open with a final charge from a local boy, it might be worth checking out. why Tom Fleetwood is very popular.

Part of you is in that football club, unofficially called the people's club of the north west of England. Everton's management tries to make big plans whenever it comes to the game. He always opts for a low profile.

Tommy's father, Pete, never left Lancashire. His earthly son jokes that Pete is more popular in Southport than Tommy. Father Fleetwood hasn't been around much this week, but he's been around, maybe a few trains down south, watching wherever he can be. actually behold, he was given a crowd of local people following his son. It was Pete who sawed off the senior clubs for young Tommy in the mid-90s and introduced him to the game at Southport muni, a course with small greens and weekday prices for $25. The sheet was full on Saturday morning. Get your golf on before Tommy leaves. The same as it was in 2023 when Fleetwood competed at Hoylake.

And Tommy doesn't feel at all… of the municipality? It is accessible. It's accessible. I'm in danger, I mean. He's about half the size of his senior teammate, Ian Finnis, who also calls this place home. They've been friends for decades, and now Finn's whole life revolves around Fleetwood's football genius.

You could see the thoughts come to each of their faces during Saturday's round. Sometimes their eyebrows would raise as they turned a corner and saw a new crowd dancing across the dunes that had never been burdened by this number of people. There was a camping atmosphere at their place on the course – fans would post up before the game to watch them go by. Well done Tomey.

“To go all green, it's like the most amazing ovation you can imagine,” Fleetwood said. “Then I accepted them in my own way because I still want to stay in my bubble, in some way, but it turns out that there were thousands of people who are with me and who are serious about me.”

For a while it was all right there, too – one stroke back from the 50-hole lead and Birkdale's finish line between them and the clubhouse. Fleetwood said he's been imagining that scene since he attended the 1998 Open at Birkdale, when he was 7 years old, the same age as his son Frankie is now.

Did some wind come out of the balloon with two bogeys on the back nine? Yes, it happened. Were there any disturbing images and sad sighs to go along with those points? Indeed. But in many ways that third round was just a change on a less meaningful day.

In his hometown and the entire region watching, the images will not fade, the sounds will be loud and the points will be visible. But one moment on his last swing at Royal Birkdale in the accessible Open, all he'll be thinking about is dreams.