PONTE VEDRA BEACH — Tommy Fleetwood said his family is safe amid the military conflict in the Middle East.
Fleetwood hails from England yet calls Dubai home, moving to the United Arab Emirates in 2022. He also runs a golf academy at Jumeirah Golf Estates, which serves as the season-ending host of the DP World Tour Championship. However, the UAE—along with sites in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman—were bombed in retaliatory strikes by Iran following bombings by the United States and Israel.
Speaking to reporters on Monday ahead of the Players Championship, Fleetwood said that while his family is still in the country, they are not in immediate danger.
“Yeah, it’s been a strange time. I can honestly say that my … you know, my family have been very, very safe,” Fleetwood said. “I think the UAE, the country, has done an unbelievable job at making everybody feel very safe and very secure and handling that. So I think we feel very lucky.
“They’re supposed to travel soon, so I think they’re looking at traveling whenever they can, but the main thing has been that they are safe. I honestly can’t speak highly enough about how well the country has handled things for the people that are over there. Just I haven’t experienced it. I’ve been over here. But, no, my family are sort of happy or as comfortable as they could be in the situations that are going on. So I think we’re all very grateful for how everybody’s handled it over there.”
Given the situation, it’s not surprising that, after back-to-back top 10s to start his tour season, Fleetwood finished 49th last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, although Fleetwood did not want to use it as an excuse.
“I definitely won’t be one to say whether it has a role in how I play or not. I think Bay Hill’s hard enough, you know,” Fleetwood said, laughing. “But I think you just do the best with whatever cards you’re dealt with and try and just, when I’m working or playing or practicing, just throw myself into that. No doubt I would love my family and everybody that’s involved at the moment or in and around the area to be in a sort of more comfortable situation, but like I say, they have handled it unbelievably well. All I can say is that my family have felt very, very safe. So, yeah, like I don’t know. I’m here trying to play golf and working on it. Golf has its ups and downs, but I’m sort of still enjoying the process of practicing and working on that everything’s OK.”
Fleetwood enters the week No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He will be in the Players’ featured pairing on Thursday and Friday with Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas.
