Tommy Fleetwood kicked off his 2026 PGA Tour campaign with a five-under-par 67 on Thursday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Fleetwood has already played two events on the DP World Tour in 2026 but he had not ventured over to America to play on the PGA Tour until this week.
The Englishman enjoyed a dream season last year, finally breaking through for his first win after years of close calls.
He silenced any remaining doubters by winning the Tour Championship in August, showing he had the edge needed to close out a big one.
It is fair to say that he is now firmly established among the elite players in world golf.
This year, Fleetwood made it clear that closing the gap on Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy at the top of the rankings is a major goal for him.
A win at Pebble Beach would be an ideal way to start making up that ground.
Tommy Fleetwood comments after first PGA Tour round of the season at Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Fleetwood is among the most popular players on the PGA Tour.
He has a huge following in the US, and his fans were happy to see him back on the course at Pebble Beach.
Speaking to reporters after his 67, which included seven birdies and two bogeys, Fleetwood gave an honest assessment of how he felt about his play.
“Yeah, I felt like I hit a lot of good shots. I sort of, I chipped and holed out well today. Like I scored pretty solid.
“There were still a few shots, like I had one really poor iron shot, I had one really poor drive and then one really poor fairway shot, but in general it was solid.
“I think yeah, I know the conditions were nice, but I still think it’s a really good score,” the Englishman concluded.
Tommy Fleetwood predicts what score would lead at Pebble Beach in bad conditions
Fleetwood discussed the significant shift in playing conditions at Pebble Beach, comparing Wednesday’s practice round with the tournament’s opening round on Thursday.
“I can’t imagine. I went out really early morning,” he began by saying.
“I just find it hard to see somebody breaking par yesterday like in the conditions that I played in in the morning in the practice round. There’s always some good rounds, but yeah, it would have been very different.
“I mean, I haven’t seen the scoring yet today, but by the sounds of it, it’s very, very good.
“I played here, I played earlier on Tuesday here and it was really firm so I think the rain has softened it up a lot.
“But even with that, you’ve got to control your spin very well. But also I guess when the course gets softer, even when you almost about hit it in the rough sometimes and it takes the spin off the ball, so I think then that kind of accumulates because you don’t have to drive it amazing to then be in a great position to score and then you can hit a nice shot and then you’re going to be closer and all that kind of stuff.
“I guess that can accumulate. I don’t know what the scoring at Pebble Beach is like. Yeah, the weather’s been really nice, and players are just very, very good at golf, so lends itself to good scoring.”
Fleetwood is clearly not as sharp as he was in the final months of the 2025 PGA Tour season.
Still, his opening round at Spyglass Hill in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am would have offered him considerable encouragement that he is very close to rediscovering his best form.
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