Tommy Fleetwood left reeling by decision that cost | Golf News

Tommy Fleetwood’s first spherical at The Open Championship was a testomony to his resilience, despite the absence of luck at Royal Portrush.

After ending two-over-par on Thursday, Fleetwood, who narrowly missed out on his first-ever PGA Tour win at the latest Travelers Championship, skilled a string of misfortunes, including putts that lipped out and unfavorable bounces on the Dunluce Course.

His most unlucky second occurred at the fifth gap, where his tee shot landed in a bunker that suffered from the R&A’s controversial alternative to forgo designated bunker rakers at Portrush. Fleetwood’s ball settled in an improperly raked part of the sand entice. Managing only to escape to the tough, Fleetwood lamented his second bogey within the first 5 holes, which did not replicate his play.

“It wasn’t a great rake job,” Fleetwood commented post-round. “I probably could have managed it. First thing is, I was not very happy to be in there. That was the first thing, so that’s my fault.

“But yeah, issues weren’t going nicely. It was in any individual’s hitting mark that hadn’t actually been raked great. I most likely might have managed it higher. I still felt like I might hit it.

“I tried to hit what I thought was the right shot, like kind of duff something, because I knew I couldn’t get any sort of strike purchase on the ball so I tried to duff it, but then you’ve got to get the height as well. So that was a bit harsh.

“I believed that was odd [for the R&A to remove bunker rakers]. I imply, still, you just rake the bunkers, proper? It’s half of the sport.

“You don’t know what’s gone on before. I’m not going to hold it against anyone too much. You don’t know what was going on, you don’t know what was happening in that moment.

“I’m not going to get offended about anybody where you do not know what’s occurring, but it wasn’t great, and yeah, bunker rakers would have been good.”

Despite the setback, Fleetwood valiantly fought through the remaining 13 holes, preserving his chances in the tournament on the first day. On Friday, he rebounded from an unfortunate start by quickly scoring three consecutive birdies in his second round.

Ranked world No. 13, Fleetwood moved to one-under-par early on, positioning himself as a contender in Northern Ireland, where he was runner-up to Shane Lowry at The Open six years prior.

R&A CEO Mark Darbon acknowledged during his pre-tournament press conference the decision to forgo BIGGA volunteers for bunker maintenance this week, though he hesitated to explain why.

“This week we have the caddies raking the bunkers. It’s a change for us but we predict a good one,” Darbon said. “[There are] a quantity of components. We just assume it is a good model for us right here at Portrush.”