'Only positives'

Tommy Fleetwood was watching on as a wide-eyed seven-year-old when The Open came to Royal Birkdale in 1998.

Nearly three decades on, he goes into golf’s original championship hoping to continue a nationwide feelgood factor.

The last English player to win The Open in England was Tony Jacklin in 1969. Three years before that, of course, brought the only occasion England have lifted football’s World Cup.

Many around the fairways are daring to dream that by Sunday evening, both hoodoos will have been lifted.

And if that potential double was started by one of their own lifting the Claret Jug, there would barely be a dry eye in the house.

You do not have to travel too far to see Fleetwood’s face around these parts.

A giant mural has been unveiled of the 35-year-old at Southport & Birkdale Sports Club. He is the subject of a 1,000m portrait greeting shoppers at Liverpool ONE, a shopping centre in the city. A crocheted Fleetwood even sits on the top of a postbox outside the nearby Hillside train station.

They are proud of their local heroes on Merseyside and no-one will receive louder roars than ‘Tommy lad’ this week.

Stories of him nipping through the bushes to play on Royal Birkdale’s hallowed fairways may have been slightly exaggerated – ‘I did it once or twice’, he said with a smile during Monday’s press conference – but he still knows these fairways better than most.

In 2017, however, the only Open he has previously played here, the pressure got the better of him on his opening round as he carded six-over-par.

Fleetwood recovered with ‘one of the best rounds I’ve ever played’ to make the cut and then shot a brilliant Saturday 66, while he finished inside the top 10 at Royal Liverpool three years ago.

“I have all those things to draw on and I have all those things to aim for,” he said. “It is an absolute dream to play here in my hometown in front of people that are all here to support me. There are only positives.

“What you have to deal with is how much you want it and your own expectations, but at the same time, I'm no different to any other person in terms of every single person that is playing in The Open dreams of winning in The Open and wants to win it.

“There's really nothing different to anybody else in that sense. I am the lucky one that gets to have home support and use that as like really positive fuel.”

Fleetwood cut a relaxed figure in front of the media and wants to prioritise having a smile on his face in the coming days.

That might be easier said than done when taking on some of Birkdale’s more treacherous challenges, especially when the forces of nature bare their teeth.

But he is equipped with a skillset – and a perspective – which should help him stay ice cool under the unique pressure of a home Open.

“If I just go back to the original me being a seven-year-old kid, the thought of playing in an Open at Birkdale was unbelievably special,” he said. “If you're not going to enjoy it, you've kind of let yourself down in that sense.

“My son, Frankie, is eight, so my sort of age when The Open came here in 1998. That's definitely where my dreams of making it as a golfer sort of started.

“He is at a lovely age where he gets to experience that and have his dad playing.”

Fleetwood breaking his PGA Tour duck at last August’s Tour Championship was a rare example of an almost universally popular victory.

Opening his major account, here of all places, would be on another level altogether.

“I don't think I want to look towards the future and think I have to win a major to feel fulfilled,” added the world number nine, who will play alongside Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm in a star-studded trio over the first two days.

“Like everyone else out here, we spend our lives giving it everything, and it might happen for me, it might not.

“I don't want to think about it as if it doesn't happen, all of those hours I spent chasing my dreams, what was it for, that kind of thing.

“Whatever happens in my career, I'll be able to look back and say that I gave it everything and I had an amazing time doing it.

“I would definitely much prefer to have a major or two or three on my resume by the time my career is over.

“Dreams do come true, we watch it all the time, but you'll never find out if yours will unless you chase it. Mine might come true; it might not. I've done a lot in my career so far – but there is still plenty more to go.”

There is indeed. Starting in his own backyard.