Reigning PGA Tour Championship champ Tommy Fleetwood had a reassuring message for all golfers, whether professional or amateur, male or female, junior or senior following his third round at the Dubai Invitational.
Fleetwood, who is also an eight-time DP World Tour champion superbly bounced back from a horror second round 78 in defence of his title, with a ‘that’s more like it’ seven birdie haul in his five-under 66, a dozen shots fewer than a day earlier on the host Dubai Creek course.
And when asked to explain the difference in his ‘Moving Day’ effort compared to Friday’s flop, Fleetwood was as humble as he is always approachable.
MESSAGE FROM A RECENT @PGATOUR ….
To all golfers – pro, amateur, male, female, young, old & the weekend hackers
As @TommyFleetwood1 bounces back from Friday’s horror 78 with a third day 66 #DubaiInvitational
Read: https://t.co/k0X3hh610T
SKY
✅ @TOURMISS… pic.twitter.com/8t2r9vpFga
— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) January 17, 2026
“Golf’s hard, and every now and again it’s very humbling,” he said.
“Yesterday (Friday) was one of those days where — I get down on myself. But when you look over it, I scored the absolute worst and everything I could do wrong, I did wrong, but I wasn’t terrible, if you know what I mean. It was an accumulation of doing everything wrong at the same time. That was really disappointing, especially after I felt like I battled really well Thursday and got a good finish.
“It was just important, like today even, I played the first three holes well. I was 1-over through three; I couldn’t have been any worse, and eventually got it going. Just happy to play well.
“I felt like my swing was better today, even though — I wasn’t miles up yesterday but I felt like I was better today and a lot closer and hit a lot more good iron shots and played much better. Still felt like I left, some, scruffy stuff, a couple poor chips out there.
“But overall, it’s a long-winded answer, happy to put in a good round after yesterday”.
Fleetwood now heads into the final round sharing 20th place at level par, eight adrift of Spaniard Nacho Elvira and leading the field by two at eight-under.
Brillant Tommy. On behalf of all us hackers, thank you.
