Tommy Fleetwood on form at Saudi International despite opting to finish round in the dark

[ASFN Admin]

Questions were inevitably asked of Tommy Fleetwood’s decision to play on in the dark at the Saudi International on Friday, but despite that perceived error, the Englishman will still fancy his chances of a first title in 15 months. Fleetwood was on eight under par and just two off the clubhouse lead set by New Zealand’s Ryan Fox when the hooter sounded for the end of a day blighted by a two-hour storm delay. As he had already hit his tee shot at the 18th, Fleetwood, 30, had the choice to return first thing to finish off the hole or play on. He opted for the latter, hit his second into the water and suffered the only bogey in his 65. “It’s not how you want to finish – it was just bad one shot,” he said. “But it’s not a disaster and I’m not going to get too angry with myself. I just wanted to get in, to be honest.” The plus side was that Fleetwood could enjoy a Saturday morning lie-in, with roughly a third of the field still to complete their second rounds. This included world No 1 Dustin Johnson, who moved ominously to eight under, courtesy of playing his 14 holes in five under. Alongside Fox on 10 under was Stephen Gallacher, the 46-year-old from Scotland, who had six holes to play. England’s Andy Sullivan and Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger also reached halfway on eight under. It was Fox who would have slept the soundest, however, following a second successive 65. “I’m very happy,” he said. “It’s been a really solid couple of days of ball-striking and saw a few putts go in on both days, which was nice. To be sitting near the top of this leaderboard is always a good thing. It’s a pretty strong field this week.” Fox, the 34-year-old son of Grant, the legendary All Black, had thought of pulling out because of his concerns at getting home. Before leaving Auckland for the European Tour’s “Desert Swing”, he had to book a slot to undertake his 14-day quarantine in a hotel and opted for next Tuesday, knowing that if he missed that date he would have to wait until May. However, there is a Jeddah-to-Dubai flight on Sunday evening that, if all goes to plan, allows him to make his connection to the North Island – via Kuala Lumpur – and make it back just before his deadline. “Being in contention is exactly where you want to be – as long as I can make my flight on Sunday to make sure I get back into New Zealand,” Fox said. “I can only control what I can control. If I go out and play well, try to set the target and make them chase me. There are a lot of top 50 players in the world here and I certainly hope to be up there one day myself. “If I can play well this week, then it’s a step in that direction. If not, it’s just good experience and a nice finish to my Desert Swing because I don’t really know when I’m going to come back out here again.”

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