Tour Confidential: Is Tommy Fleetwood primed for a huge 2026?
Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss another Tommy Fleetwood victory, a unique tournament venue, the LPGA’s latest champion and more.
Tommy Fleetwood won the DP World India Championship to earn his second victory in his last four starts (not to mention his Ryder Cup dominance). Now no longer worried about securing his first PGA Tour win (and save for the World No. 1), is there a player primed for a more dominant 2026 than Fleetwood?
Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): The stars certainly seem to be aligning for a Fleetwood breakout. He had a few close calls even before he finally won the Tour Championship, so it’s not like the last few months have been a fluke. The guy can ball-strike with the best of them, which is a good way to always stay in contention. But it’s also important to remember guys have gotten hot and looked ready to tear up the golf world before, only to disappear. (Viktor Hovland won back-to-back playoff events in August 2023 and didn’t win again for 19 months.) I don’t expect a Scottie-like 2026, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Fleetwood picked off two or even three wins next year.
Alan Bastable, executive editor (@alan_bastable): Amazing how wins so often beget more wins. Fleetwood is the latest case in point, and not necessarily because his game is any better than it was a year ago – but more so because he’s leading the Tour in SG: Confidence. We'll see if that magic stays with him through the offseason. As he said himself on Sunday, "I know form doesn’t last forever, but I’m trying to make myself the most consistent player I can be." But, yes, to answer the question, he's incredibly well positioned for 2026. Another guy I'm excited to see in action next year: Cameron Young. Curious if his impressive Ryder Cup will give him a shot of sustained confidence.
Jessica Marksbury, senior editor (@jess_marksbury): It's always interesting when players get hot in the fall and winter to see if they can sustain the momentum into the next summer major season. Although, as Josh mentioned, it's not as though Tommy is coming out of nowhere. He's been a favorite pick at the majors even before his PGA Tour breakthrough. But Tommy does seem to come on especially strong in Ryder Cup years. So let's revisit this in 2027! As for next year, I'm looking forward to keeping my eye on another solid European: Alex Noren, who won two DP World Tour titles this year and is projected to earn his PGA Tour card for next season.
Fleetwood beat out a handful of stars to win on a narrow Delhi Golf Club, where it was reported that 42 percent of the field played without a driver. Should the PGA Tour visit more courses where players are forced to be more strategic off the tee? And how often?
Berhow: Delhi Golf Club is a pretty extreme example – I don’t want Rory hitting zero drivers! – but it should definitely happen more, as playing sound, strategic golf and hitting clubs the course might call for is a skill, just as much as it is to bomb driver all around the property. It gives more players a chance too. Years ago I remember Kevin Kisner rattling off a list of courses he felt he couldn’t win on simply due to the distance required off the tee. How realistic it is though is another question. Lots of logistics go into picking a Tour venue – a sponsor, the TV production, etc. – and sometimes the type of golf course isn’t always the main focus.
Bastable: Power should be a competitive advantage in golf so, yeah, it would be unfair to suddenly inject the Tour schedule with a bunch more tight and tree-choked sites. Still, this week in New Delhi was a fun reminder that there's more than one way to test elite players who can hit a driver 330 yards, and some of the players seemed to really dig the challenge. "I like courses like this a lot more because you just hit a variety of different clubs more often," Ben Griffin said early in the week, "whereas in America we’re so used to hitting maybe drivers and wedges a lot more."
Marksbury: Playing a round of golf without a driver is something I will never be able to relate to! Years ago, a USGA official told me that the objective for the course setup for the U.S. Open was not necessarily to provide the most tortuous test, but for players to utilize every club in the bag over the course of the tournament. I like that idea, and I am definitely in favor of promoting more courses (or setups) where that's possible. Six or seven times a year would be nice.
Rory McIlroy was among the players who kept the driver out of the bag and tied for 26th in India. When course setup limits drivers, is McIlroy at the biggest disadvantage?
Berhow: Although Scottie Scheffler leads the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, I think most would argue McIlroy with a driver in hand is one of the best shows in golf, and it might be the single club that gives one player an advantage more than any other (Scottie with an iron a close second?). That said, Rory didn't win a career grand slam by simply hitting driver, but he does probably do the most with it.
Bastable: I think it was probably less a case of the setup not suiting McIlroy's skill sets and more a case of the target-style of golf really suiting other players, notably Tommy Fleetwood, who said the course "set up perfectly for me." Interestingly, if you look at McIlory's 10 bogeys from the week, most were caused not by loose tee shots but by missing greens or pins on the wrong side.
Marksbury: I agree with both of my colleagues here. Eliminating driver is a bummer for a player with so much prowess off the tee. But at the end of the day, you're hitting way more approaches and putts than you are tee shots. So whatever advantage McIlroy was losing was still somewhat minimal, in my mind.
Sei Young Kim won the BMW Ladies Championship to become the 27th different winner on the LPGA Tour this season, where there’s been just one two-time winner on the year (Jeeno Thitikul, who won her second event, the LPGA Shanghai, a week ago). With only five tournaments remaining, how do you analyze the current player-of-the-year race?
Berhow: Jeeno Thitikul is the obvious front-runner as the only player with multiple wins, and her season’s been great beyond those weeks. She’s missed just one cut all year and has 12 top-10 finishes. Since this is decided based on points, the CME Group Tour Championship might end up deciding the whole thing. We didn’t have that drama last year with Nelly Korda running away with this.
Marksbury: Agree, Josh. That 27 first-time winner stat is incredible. It really speaks to how deep the talent runs on the LPGA Tour, and as you mentioned, Jeeno may have only two wins, but she's contended nearly every time she's teed it up, notched four runner-ups and would be very deserving of the crown, even without a major title this year.
Bastable: To put Jeeno's consistency in perspective, she is 120 points ahead of the second-ranked player on the Rolex list, Nelly Korda – while Korda has only a 20-point lead on the third spot, held by Minjee Lee. In other words, Thitikul is miles ahead of her peer. Only blemish on her 2025 resume came at the U.S. Women's Open, where she missed her only cut of the year.
Playing for the first time since he withdrew from Sunday singles and evoked the now-controversial “envelope rule” at the Ryder Cup, Viktor Hovland called the situation “upsetting” but added he doesn’t see an easy fix for the rule. OK fair. But what Ryder Cup rule would you change?
Berhow: Easy – pick the matchups like they do at the Presidents Cup, where the captains alternate their selections. That way, as long as the captains play ball, we can get a little more drama infused into the event. (And drama that doesn't include boneheaded fans.)
Bastable: In the case of a tie at the end of singles, institute a three-hole aggregate-score playoff, pitting one player from each team selected by their respective captain. Unlike the envelope rule, though, the playoff reps would be selected in advance. The captains would pick them in the moment so, should they wish, they can nominate not necessarily their best player but the hottest one.
Marksbury: The Ryder Cup is nearly perfect, but I don't like the "retention" rule if there's a tie. We need a result! The envelope should be used to nominate one player from each team to face off in a sudden-death playoff for the whole thing.
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