Scottish golf writer's big secret - there's an Englishman who is probably my favourite player

Step forward Tommy Fleetwood, who, to the delight of the entire golfing world, finally got his first PGA Tour win and, boy, did he do it in style by landing the season-ending Tour Championship and getting his hands on the FedEx Cup as well in the process.

Though not there in person, I first came across the Englishman when, as an amateur, he won the Scottish Stroke-Play Championship - it has since been renamed as the Scottish Men’s Open - at Murcar Links in 2009.

Four years later, I was at Gleneagles when he then landed his first professional victory in the Johnnie Walker Championship and still often recall his post-event interview as the family dog was in the back of the room.

Jock MacVicar, ‘The Doyen’ of Scottish golf writers but no longer with us sadly, was also at that event and, for a good few years after, for some reason we always referred to him as “Wee Tommy”.

Ever since that event in Perthshire, Fleetwood has been one of the most friendly, most gracious and most likeable players you could ever meet, hence why there has been a tsunami of praise for the biggest win of his career so far.

Fleetwood so often the nearly man

On numerous occasions, the Southport man had let winning opportunities slip from his grasp, including a couple over the past few weeks as victories went instead to Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose in the Travelers Championship and the FedEx St Jude Championship.

Every single time, though, he’s dusted himself down, got back on the horse and gone again. Those who claimed he didn’t have the bottle to win on the toughest tour in the game have certainly had such cynicism rammed down their throats.

“Your journey is a reminder that hard work, resilience and heart do pay off,” wrote 15-time major winner Tiger Woods in a post on X as he reacted to Fleetwood recording his three-shot success at East Lake and getting the job done in his 164th roll of the dice on the PGA Tour. “No-one deserves it more.”

That hits the nail on the head, really, and it was no surprise to hear Fleetwood, who has a brilliant relationship with his long-time friend and caddie Ian Finnis, immediately talking about how he hopes his experience can help others.

“I've clearly got things wrong in the dire moments of tournaments, and I might have made the odd dodgy decision, might have put a bad swing on it,” he said in his post-event press conference in Georgia.

“But I've had to have mental strength in a different way. I've had to be resilient in terms of putting myself back up there, getting myself back in that position, no matter how many times it doesn't go my way, no matter how many doubts might creep in.

“Think the right things, say the right things to yourself, say the right things outwardly, and I am really pleased that I can be proof that if you do all the right things and you just keep going that it can happen.”

Yeah, good things do, indeed, happen to good people!

The big Ryder Cup call for Bradley

In a week’s time, all the speculation will be over and we will know the 24 players heading into battle in the 45th Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black on Long Island in New York.

On Wednesday afternoon, US captain Keegan Bradley will finalise his team by announcing six picks before his European counterpart, Luke Donald, does likewise next Monday.

The only big question to be answered, really, is whether Bradley will be the event’s first playing captain since Arnold Palmer back in 1963.

The man appointed to try and win the trophy back after a heavy defeat in Rome two years ago finished 11th on the points list, dropping one spot at the end of the Tour Championship after being in with a chance of winning it heading into the last round.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Bradley would be worthy of a place on the team, but he’s facing a huge call because, no matter what anyone says, trying to be a playing captain in a modern-day Ryder Cup would be a monumental task.

He could, I suppose, say he is only going to play in the afternoon sessions on the opening two days and be able to watch a bit of the morning action, but, as a colleague pointed out to me, that would be diluting the team’s options straight away.

I’ve said it before, though, and will do so again. I think Bradley should go for it as that’s what the US fans will want and he is certainly someone who can fire up the Americans, something you feel has often been lacking under previous US captains.

Donald’s task looks a little easier

Donald, on the other hand, looks as though he now has a fairly straightforward decision to make after Rasmus Hojgaard joined Rory McIlroy, Bob MacIntyre, Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Tyrrell Hatton as his six automatic qualifiers.

Shane Lowry, who was knocked out of a guaranteed berth by Hojgaard, is certain to get a pick and the same goes for Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Sepp Straka after he missed the penultimate PGA Tour Play-Off event due to a family issue and then finished last in the Tour Championship.

That would leave just one spot up for grabs and, though he would have been disappointed not to win the Betfred British Masters after leading after 54 holes, the form Matt Fitzpatrick has shown over the past couple of months should see his name on the wildcard list as well.

If he’d not been injured earlier in the season, Alex Noren, who won at The Belfry, would certainly have been a contender after being part of a winning team in 2018 in France, but he essentially ruled himself out of the reckoning. It was being rumoured last week, though, that he could be at Bethpage Black as a vice-captain, so watch this space.