Fleetwood, a member at Formby Hall, said last night: “I am delighted. Two years ago I watched the Walker Cup match at Royal County Down and I thought I have just got to be part of this.”
Fleetwood hit his first golf balls as a boy at Southport Municipal aged five. Since then he has moved steadily upwards, now to the summit of world amateur golf and making him one of the most talented and exciting prospects on the British golf scene.On the way he captained England Boys, helped England win the World Junior Championships in Japan where he won the top individual award to become world boy No 1,
Last year he finished second in the Amateur and, in the words of Colin Dalgleish, GB&I team captain yesterday, this year he has produced “a very, very strong record.” In major GB&I events he finished 11th in the Lytham Trophy, 4th in the Brabazon, won the Scottish Open, and finished 8th in the St Andrews Links.
He suffered the setback of losing in the quarter final of the British Amateur at Formby to Matteo Manassaro, from Italy, the eventual winner and Silver Medal winner in the Open.But against that disappointment came his stunning performance in the Scottish when he returned 16- under for the four rounds, the best performance of his career.
He is 24th in the world. Jim Payne, the professional at Southport and Ainsdale, coaches him on his long game while he spends considerable time with Specialist Putting Coach Phil Kenyon, who helps him on the greens.
Fleetwood said: “Every time you win something you think what it will do to your Walker Cup chances and throughout the year you are picking the team.“At one time I did not think I had done enough. I kept thinking I had to do more. But then I started playing really well. I broke a lot of records in the Scottish.”
While he is aware of the competition for place he admits that he was not totally surprised when he received the telephone call about his selection for the squad.“My boyhood dreams were always to get on the European Tour become world number one. But now it just does not get any better than this. This is the peak of world amateur golf.”
For some players the Walker Cup may be seen as a milestone, the time to decided to become a professional. But Fleetwood said that he would stay an amateur at least for another year that there were events he wanted to play, trophies he wanted to win in the amateur game. The squad will visit Valderrama in Spain this month as part of advances preparations for the match.
