Tommy Fleetwood is convinced he is getting closer to a first Major Championship victory after making history on an exhilarating final day of the US Open.
The Englishman entered round four six shots behind the leaders but fired a remarkable 63 at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club to set the target in the clubhouse and pile the pressure on the leading groups as they played the back nine.
Fleetwood's seven under par effort on the notoriously difficult Long Island layout equalled the record for the lowest round at a US Open and the lowest score on the final day of a Major Championship but he ended up finishing one shot behind winner Brooks Koepka.
The 27 year old has come a long way since needing a top ten finish at the last event of the season to keep his European Tour card in 2012, and the Race to Dubai champion is happy to be edging closer to a win in one of golf's four biggest events.
“So many positives, so many great things,” he said. “Had a chance to shoot a 62 and at the end of the day, I got within one of winning when I was so far back at the start of the day.
“So it's been a great day. It's easy to look at it and think I was one shy and you can be disappointed but there's so many positives to look at and so much that you can take from it and learn from it.
“It's another Major where I've ended up sort of up there at the end of the day. Majors in tournaments are 72 holes so it doesn't matter how you do it, if you end up there at the end of the week, it's a positive.
“In golf, all of us that play, that's where our dreams and ambitions are - we want to win Majors. A lot of us want to be World Number One and there's certain tournaments we want to win.
“I'll just continue to put in the hard work and surround myself with the people that I need and hopefully I will get there and hopefully I'll win one or more than one.
“At the end of the day, this is my best result in a Major yet so now there's only one I can do from here and that's win one. At the position I'm in, performing in them a little bit more, at some point I'll start to look and think, 'yeah, I can win these Majors' and I'll start to find a way to try to win them.”
Fleetwood made a fast start with the putter on Sunday, holing a 50-footer on the second and a 19-footer on the third to get to seven over. A stunning approach to the sixth and a nice tee-shot into the next had him right in the mix before he dropped a shot on the ninth.
Hopefully I will get there and hopefully I'll win one or more than one - Tommy Fleetwood
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA winner needed a response to that disappointment and he holed another long putt on the 12th before leaving himself a tap-in on the next.
His hot streak with the putter continued with a 20-footer from off the front of the 14th and a putt from 30 feet on the 15th, and he was the man to catch with a place in the history books.
An agonising wait of over two hours followed but with young son Franklin at his side on his first Father's Day as a dad and with the cheers of a vociferous crowd ringing in his ears, Fleetwood kept his cool.
“The best players in the world are up there trying to win a US Open and watching them down the stretch, you've got nothing but respect for how well Brooks did, just to hole the putts at the right time,” he said. “He kept it together and he's one of the best players in the world.
“It wasn't great for me but it was great as a golfer to watch how he did it and watch how he closed it out.”
